PMID 39107107

Research
All papers

Inflammatory markers and noncoding-RNAs responses to low and high compressions of HIIT with or without berberine supplementation in middle-aged men with prediabetes

Nikseresht M, Dabidi Roshan V, Nasiri K

Question

How do low-compression and high-compression low-volume HIIT, with or without berberine, affect inflammatory markers, noncoding RNAs, and insulin resistance in middle-aged men with overweight or obesity and prediabetes?

Summary

In middle-aged overweight or obese men with prediabetes, 8 weeks of home-based HIIT improved several inflammatory and insulin-resistance markers. A lower-compression version with longer rests showed some unique anti-inflammatory signals, while adding berberine did not clearly add benefit to exercise.

Methodology

  • Middle-aged overweight or obese men with prediabetes
  • 54 participants.
  • Bodyweight circuit.
  • Work intervals: 20 seconds.
  • Recovery: HC 10 seconds; LC 20 seconds; 1 minute between sets.
  • Intensity: RPE 7-9, equivalent to 85-95% HRmax.
  • 10-24 minutes depending on compression and week.
  • 2 sessions/week.
  • 8 weeks.
  • Single-blinded randomized controlled trial
  • Inflammatory markers, Insulin resistance, Body composition, and Blood pressure were tracked.

Outcomes

Inflammation

All exercise interventions reduced hs-CRP and IL-1 beta versus control, while NLRP3 and H19 decreased only after LC versus baseline.

Abstract and discussion report significant reductions; exact p-values vary by marker/table.

Improved

Glucose markers

Exercise interventions reduced insulin, fasting glucose, and HOMA-IR versus control; BBR alone reduced fasting glucose and HOMA-IR from baseline.

Reported as significant in abstract.

Improved

Berberine add-on

Adding berberine to exercise did not provide clear additional benefits for selected inflammatory markers.

Authors state BBR with HIIT failed to yield significant enhancements in selected inflammatory markers.

No clear change

LC response

Low-compression HIIT showed unique improvements in H19, NLRP3, and blood pressure-related outcomes.

NLRP3 and H19 dropped only with LC versus baseline; LC improved SBP and MAP in discussion.

Improved

Insights

  • Equal-rest 20:20 intervals may be a useful lower-compression option for metabolic-risk users.
  • Two weekly home HIIT sessions can be a plausible low-volume dose for internal programming experiments.
  • Supplement combinations should be kept out of user-facing claims unless the app has a dedicated nutrition evidence layer.

Limitations

  • Men-only sample.
  • Small per-group sample size.
  • Adverse events were not clearly reported.
  • Berberine co-intervention complicates interpretation.
  • Only 8 weeks of training.

Safety

  • Adverse events were not clearly reported in the reviewed full text.
  • Participants were sedentary but otherwise screened to exclude chronic disease, smoking, regular medication use, and nonstandard diets.
  • The protocol progressed exercise complexity after the first four weeks.