Sport to change the situation of DNA
2012/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria
Researchers at the Swedish Karolinska Institute have studied the DNA of the thigh muscles of 14 healthy men and women making circulate loud in the gym. Studies have shown that the epigenetic situation of certain genes related to energy metabolism has changed due to sport. In fact, the region responsible for the onset of gene expression has lost methylation in these genes -- methylated DNA is a usual epigenetic mechanism of generic silencing. It has been measured that demetization also depends on the intensity of exercise, since in the muscles of eight people who have worked more intensely the degree of demetization measured has been higher. In non-metabolism genes, however, no changes have been observed.
According to the researchers, the results cannot be deduced that sport activates the genes of metabolism, since they do not know if the measured demetization is necessary to activate these genes. The greatest interest of the researchers is in the field of possible demetization mechanisms so fast, since it is a rather unknown field. The head of the research, Juleen Zierath, has the hypothesis that in laboratory studies carried out with muscle cells of rodents, it has been proven that the same demetization occurs when the cell is contracted, so they consider that muscle contraction is one of the causes. It has also been observed that once a massive dose of caffeine has been administered to the rodents' cells, the same result is obtained, since a mechanism that mimics muscle contraction is activated. In any case, Zierbena has clearly indicated that coffee does not replace the sport. "It should take about 50 cups of coffee a day, almost a deadly dose so that the effects that have been seen in the cells occur in the muscles," he told the journal Nature. The results of the study were published in the journal Cell Metabolism.
