Relationship Between METTL21C Gene Expression and Exercise in Human Skeletal Muscle: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

PURPOSE: Recently, METTL21C has been identified as a potential pleiotropic gene for osteoporosis and sarcopenia. The purpose of this study was to collect gene expression datasets of human skeletal muscle transcriptome and to determine their relationship to exercise through meta-analysis.METHODS: MetaMEx was used to determine whether METTL21C in human skeletal muscle was associated with age, sex, physical activity and obesity. In addition, the difference in gene expression of METTL21C according to exercise duration and exercise type was confirmed. Using MetaMEx, top 300 genes (positive and negative, respectively) with a high correlation with METTL21C were selected, and gene ontology analysis was performed to identify related pathways.RESULTS:The expression of METTL21C gene in human skeletal muscle was significantly lower in the elderly than in young subjects (p<.0001), and significantly lower in female than in male (p<.0001). Also, the obese subjects were significantly lower than lean subjects (p<.0001). However, subjects with high level of physical activity had significantly higher expression of METTL21C than subjects with low levels of physical activity (p<.0001). Acute resistance exercise (p<.0001) and acute high-intensity interval training (p<.05) were found to have significantly higher expression of METTL21C in the skeletal muscle of the exercise group compared to the control group. Aerobic exercise training (p<.0001) and resistance exercise training (p<.0001) showed significantly higher expression of METTL21C in the skeletal muscle of the exercise group compared to the control group.CONCLUSIONS: Physical activity and exercise is important to prevent and treat osteosarcopenia because it can increase the expression of METTL21C in human skeletal muscle and maintain bone and muscle homeostasis.