Identification of a link between exercise and brain function in humans through mapping of skeletal muscle enhancers [ChIP-Seq]

Regular exercise improves health and prevents many chronic disorders such as obesity, cardiovascular and neurological diseases. Here, we hypothesized that skeletal muscle gene enhancers undergo epigenetic remodeling after exercise training and overlap with known disease variants from genome-wide association studies (GWAS). Overlapping exercise-remodeled enhancers with GWAS and cis-expression Quantitative Trait Loci data revealed enrichment with traits related to platelet function, cognitive traits and cardiovascular disease. We identify FBXW4 and PLEKHO2 as candidate genes regulated by variant-containing, exercise-responsive enhancers, and that are potentially involved in the distal modulation of brain function. Our results identify a list of genes differentially regulated after exercise training in humans, and which may cooperatively control brain function through the cardiovascular system. Overall design: H3K27ac & H3K4me1 ChIP-seq of human vastus lateralis biopsies before and after exercise.