Table_4_Long-Term Exercise Alters the Profiles of Circulating Micro-RNAs in the Plasma of Young Women.XLSX

Objective: The objective of this paper was to study the effects of long-term exercise on circulating microRNAs (miRNAs) in human plasma.
Methods: Whole blood was collected from 10 female elite athletes with at least 5 years of training experience in the Chinese National Synchronized Swimming Team (S group) and 15 female college students without regular exercise training (C group). Plasma miRNAs were then isolated, sequenced, and semi-quantified by the second-generation sequencing technology, and the results were analyzed by bioinformatics methods.
Results: We found 380 differentially expressed miRNAs in the S group compared with the C group, among which 238 miRNAs were upregulated and 142 were downregulated. The top five abundant miRNAs in the 380 miRNAs of the S group are hsa-miR-451a, hsa-miR-486, hsa-miR-21-5p, hsa-miR-423-5p, and hsa-let-7b-5p. Muscle-specific/enriched miRNAs were not significantly different, except for miR-206 and miR-486. According to the Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathway analysis, a large proportion of the differentially expressed miRNAs are targeted in cancer-related pathways, including proteoglycans in cancer and miRNAs in cancer and basal cell carcinoma. As the levels of circulating miRNAs (ci-miRNAs) are commonly known to be significantly deregulated in cancer patients, we further compared the levels of some well-studied miRNAs in different types of cancer patients with those in the S group and found that long-term exercise regulates the level of ci-miRNAs in an opposite direction to those in cancer patients.
Conclusion: Long-term exercise significantly alters the profiles of plasma miRNAs in healthy young women. It may reduce the risk of certain types of cancers by regulating plasma miRNA levels.

研究目标：本研究旨在探讨长期运动对人体血浆中循环微RNA（circulating microRNAs, miRNAs）的影响。
研究方法：招募中国国家花样游泳队的10名具备至少5年训练经验的女子精英运动员（S组）与15名无规律运动训练习惯的女大学生（C组），采集其全血样本。随后采用二代测序技术对血浆miRNAs进行分离、测序与半定量分析，并通过生物信息学方法对结果展开分析。
研究结果：与C组相比，S组中共筛选出380个差异表达miRNAs，其中238个表达上调，142个表达下调。在S组的380个差异表达miRNAs中，丰度排名前五的分别为hsa-miR-451a、hsa-miR-486、hsa-miR-21-5p、hsa-miR-423-5p及hsa-let-7b-5p。除miR-206与miR-486外，肌肉特异性/富集性miRNAs无显著表达差异。通过京都基因与基因组百科全书（Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes, KEGG）通路分析发现，大部分差异表达miRNAs的靶基因富集于癌症相关通路，包括癌症中的蛋白聚糖、癌症相关miRNAs及基底细胞癌通路。鉴于已知癌症患者体内循环miRNAs（circulating miRNAs, ci-miRNAs）的水平通常显著失调，本研究进一步将部分研究较为深入的癌症相关miRNAs在癌症患者中的水平与S组进行对比，结果显示长期运动对血浆ci-miRNAs水平的调控方向与癌症患者中恰好相反。
研究结论：长期运动可显著改变健康青年女性的血浆miRNAs表达谱，或可通过调控血浆miRNAs水平降低部分癌症的发病风险。