Effects of exercise on miRNA expression level in human neutrophils

Exercise leads to a rapid change in the profile of gene expression in circulating neutrophils. We hypothesized that miRNA expression in circulating neutrophils would also be affected by brief exercise. Eleven healthy men (19-30 yr old) performed 10 2-min bouts of cycle ergometer exercise interspersed with 1-min rest at a constant work equivalent to about 76% of VO2max. A baseline blood sample was taken before the and immediately after the exercise. Neutrophils were isolated using OptiPrep Density Gradient Medium (SIGMA). Total RNA was extracted using TRIzol®. For this study we used Agilent Human miRNA microarrays V2 (total of 22 chips).