Serum metabolic profiles in overweight and obese women with and without metabolic syndrome.

Objective: To identify serum biomarkers through metabolomics approach that distinguishes physically inactive overweight/obese women with metabolic syndrome from those who are metabolically healthy, independent of body weight and fat mass.

Methods: We applied nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy-based profiling of fasting serum samples to examine the metabolic differences between 78 previously physically inactive, body weight and fat mass matched overweight/obese premenopausal women with and without MetS. MetS was defined as the presence of at least three of the following five criteria: waist circumference ≥88 cm, serum triacylglycerol ≥1.

Are skeletal muscle FNDC5 gene expression and irisin release regulated by exercise and related to health?

Recently, contradictory findings have been reported concerning the function of irisin and its precursor gene, skeletal muscle FNDC5, in energy homeostasis, and the associated regulatory role of exercise and PGC-1α. We therefore evaluated whether muscle FNDC5 mRNA and serum irisin are exercise responsive and whether PGC-1α expression is associated with FNDC5 expression. The male subjects in the study performed single exercises: (1) 1 h low-intensity aerobic exercise (AE) (middle-aged, n = 17), (2) a heavy-intensity resistance exercise (RE) bout (young n = 10, older n = 11) (27 vs.