Interactive effects of aging and aerobic capacity on energy metabolism–related metabolites of serum, skeletal muscle, and white adipose tissue

Aerobic capacity is a strong predictor of longevity. With aging, aerobic capacity decreases concomitantly with changes in whole body metabolism leading to increased disease risk. To address the role of aerobic capacity, aging, and their interaction on metabolism, we utilized rat models selectively bred for low and high intrinsic aerobic capacity (LCRs/HCRs) and compared the metabolomics of serum, muscle, and white adipose tissue (WAT) at two time points: Young rats were sacrificed at 9 months of age, and old rats were sacrificed at 21 months of age. Targeted and semi-quantitative metabolomics analysis was performed on the ultra-pressure liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS) platform. The effects of aerobic capacity, aging, and their interaction were studied via regression analysis. Our results showed that high aerobic capacity is associated with an accumulation of isovalerylcarnitine in muscle and serum at rest, which is likely due to more efficient leucine catabolism in muscle. With aging, several amino acids were downregulated in muscle, indicating more efficient amino acid metabolism, whereas in WAT less efficient amino acid metabolism and decreased mitochondrial β-oxidation were observed. Our results further revealed that high aerobic capacity and aging interactively affect lipid metabolism in muscle and WAT, possibly combating unfavorable aging-related changes in whole body metabolism. Our results highlight the significant role of WAT metabolism for healthy aging. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s11357-021-00387-1.