Molecular insight into transcriptome profiling of aerobic exercise induced changes in aged skeletal muscle

Skeletal muscle aging causes loss of both muscle mss and strength, often leading to sarcopenia. Clinical manifestation of sarcopenia has been found to improve with exercise intervention. The molecular mechanisms in response to exercise intervention in aged skeletal muscles are not fully understood. We performed transcriptomic profiling of aged animal model with exercise intervention for identifying the plausible mechanism leading to enhanced muscle function. Expression levels of 43,629 RNAs were analyzed for the process of aging and exercise intervention. Differentially expressed genes showed 22,196 protein-coding and 21,433 non-coding RNAs that were found to be significantly altered with intervention. Genes associated with extracellular matrix and inflammatory responses exhibited significant change with intervention. Slpi (Secretory Leukocyte Protease Inhibitor)- a vital gene in the intervention group with its role as an inflammatory regulator and tissue repair gene. The activation of quisqualate receptor, neurotransmitter receptors and postsynaptic signal transmission pathways were most relevant for upregulated genes in the intervention group. Downregulated genes in the intervention group were mostly associated with ATP-dependent protein disaggregase activity. Our study provides a comprehensive analysis of the global transcriptome that governs aerobic exercise induced changes in aged muscle leading to compensatory adaptation with exercise in aged model group.