Serum metabolomic adaptations following a 12-week high-intensity interval training combined to citrulline supplementation in obese older adults

ABSTRACT

Physical activity and nutrition play important roles in preventing adverse health outcomes that accompany aging. It has been shown that high-intensity interval training (HIIT) combined with citrulline (CIT) supplementation can improve physical and functional capacities. The aim of this study was to evaluate serum metabolites following a 12-week HIIT combined or not with CIT in obese older adults, and to correlate the metabolic changes with clinico-biological parameters changes. Eighty-six obese older adults completed a 12-week HIIT program combined with a 10 g daily supplementation of either CIT or placebo (PLA) during a double-blinded randomized interventional trial. Only participants with blood samples at T0 (before the intervention) and/or T12 (after the intervention) were included in our sub-analysis (HIIT-PLA-T0: n = 44 and HIIT-PLA-T12: n = 28; HIIT-CIT-T0: n = 39 and HIIT-CIT-T12: n = 42). Serum samples were analyzed by different liquid or gas phase chromatography methods coupled to mass spectrometry. Among the identified metabolites, 44 changed significantly following the 12-week intervention (Time effect), and 10 of them were more affected when HIIT was combined with CIT (Time × Supp effect). Arginine increased significantly due to the 12-week intervention. Correlation analyses demonstrated that decreased triglyceride (TG) (16:1/18:1/16:0) and aspartic acid significantly correlated with a reduction of adiposity-related parameters (fat mass, leg lean mass, leptin, total triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein). Arginine, TG (16:1/18:1/16:0) and aspartic acid might constitute biomarkers of cardiometabolic health and adiposity. Further studies are needed to confirm these associations and understand the underlying mechanisms.

Highlights

• A 12-week intervention involving high-intensity interval training (HIIT) with or without citrulline (CIT) supplementation induced adaptations in the serum metabolome of obese older adults through significant changes in 44 metabolites.

• Changes in 23 metabolites were observed when a CIT supplementation was administered along with a 12-week HIIT intervention.

• TG (16:1/18:1/16:0) correlated with several adiposity parameters including leptin, triglycerides, legs lean mass.

• Aspartic acid correlated with several adiposity parameters including leptin, LDL cholesterol as well as android, arms and trunk fat mass.

KEYWORDS:

• HIIT
• aging
• obesity
• exercise
• nutrition

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to all the volunteers for their participation in this study and to Carole Roy for her technical support. The citrulline supplementation was provided for free by Citrage©. The authors sincerely thank the Gustave Roussy Cancer Campus metabolomics platform for the metabolomics analysis.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Declaration of interest statement

GK has been holding research contracts with Daiichi Sankyo, Eleor, Kaleido, Lytix Pharma, PharmaMar, Samsara, Sanofi, Sotio, Vascage and Vasculox/Tioma. GK is on the Board of Directors of the Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation France. GK is a scientific co-founder of everImmune, Samsara Therapeutics and Therafast Bio. GK is the inventor of patents covering therapeutic targeting of aging, cancer, cystic fibrosis and metabolic disorders.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.