Impact of Exercise on Protein Expression

This study examines the impact of exercise intensity on the 12-hour time-course of mitochondrial biogenic gene and protein expression in human skeletal muscle. Briefly, participants will perform two experimental sessions involving an acute bout of work-matched low- or high-intensity interval cycling exercise in a randomized crossover fashion, two weeks apart. Skeletal muscle biopsies will be obtained from the vastus lateralis (3 from each leg) before and 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 hours post-exercise. Changes in the expression of various transcription factors and mitochondrial proteins will be examined at the mRNA and protein level to determine the time-course of changes in these factors differs between exercise protocols of different intensities.