PMID 37078430

Research
All papers

High-Intensity interval training reduces transcriptomic age: A randomized controlled trial

Lohman T, Bains G, Cole S, Gharibvand L, Berk L, Lohman E

Question

Does 4 weeks of low-dose HIIT reduce transcriptomic age and age acceleration in sedentary middle-aged adults compared with no-exercise control?

Summary

In sedentary adults aged 40 to 65, 4 weeks of supervised low-dose HIIT reduced an RNA-based transcriptomic age estimate compared with no-exercise control. Body fat, BMI, visceral fat, depression score, and sleep quality improved within the exercise group, but most body-composition differences were not significant between groups and the biological-age marker is a surrogate outcome.

Methodology

  • Sedentary adults aged 40 to 65 years
  • 30 participants.
  • Rower, cycle ergometer, treadmill.
  • Work intervals: 1 min.
  • Recovery: 1 min self-selected intensity rest.
  • Intensity: 77% to 93% predicted HRmax.
  • 23 min.
  • 3 sessions/week.
  • 4 weeks.
  • Single-site single-blinded randomized controlled trial
  • Transcriptomic age, Transcriptomic age acceleration, and Body composition were tracked.

Outcomes

Transcriptomic age

HIIT reduced transcriptomic age while control increased nonsignificantly.

HIIT -3.59 years, p=0.043; control +3.29 years, p=0.078; group x time p=0.026.

Improved

Age acceleration

HIIT reduced transcriptomic age acceleration compared with control.

HIIT -3.84 years, p=0.042; control +3.21 years, p=0.077; group x time p=0.025.

Improved

Body composition

BMI, body fat mass, and visceral fat area improved within the HIIT group, but between-group differences were not significant.

Between-group p>0.05 for BFM, BMI, and visceral fat area.

Mixed

Insights

  • A 23-min, 10 x 1-min format is a practical low-dose HIIT template.
  • Transcriptomic-age findings are promising but should be framed as surrogate and exploratory.
  • HR boundaries can help standardize relative intensity for sedentary adults.

Limitations

  • Small sample
  • Short 4-week duration
  • No long-term follow-up
  • Surrogate biological-age outcome
  • TRAP model overestimated age in all samples
  • Exploratory pathway analysis used liberal thresholds

Safety

  • No adverse-event statement was found in the extracted NXML.
  • Participants were screened for exercise safety and monitored with real-time HR during HIIT.