The effect of 8 weeks high- intensity interval training and combined training on miR-16 expression in peripheral mononuclear blood cells of overweight/obese middle-aged women

Background: MicroRNAs are short non-coding RNA molecules that regulate different biological processes through regulating the expression of different genes and the miR-16 is one of the miRNAs that play an important role in obesity-related disorders. Therefore, the present study was conducted to determine the effect of high- intensity interval training (HIIT) alone and combined with resistance training (CHRT) on miR-16 expression in PBMCs of overweight/ obese middle-aged women.

Methods: Twenty-four overweight/obese, inactive, health middle-aged women participated in two homogeneous groups HIIT (5 bouts of running at 80%–85% of VO2max with active breaks at 60% of VO2max, 5 days/week, n=12) and CHRT protocols (3 day/week HIIT with 2 day/week resistance training protocol with 75-80% of 1-RM, n=12) for eight- week. MiR-16 expressions in PBMCs of overweight/obese middle-aged women were measured by real time- PCR before and 48h after the training protocols.

Results: Expression of miR-16 increased significantly in the both training protocols (HIIT: 2.32 fold, p=0.001 and CHRT: 4.96, p=0.006). However, there was no significant difference found between training protocols.

Conclusion: The eight weeks of HIIT and CHRT training are lead to equally changes in the expression of miR-16, as an anti-inflammatory epigenetic factor, in PBMCs of overweight/obese women.