Exercise benefits influenced by sRAGE levels in diabetes

By Sally Robertson, B.Sc.Aug 3 2012

Increased levels of the soluble form of the receptor for advanced glycation end products (sRAGE) may underly the beneficial effects of exercise in patients with Type 2 diabetes, research shows.

In a 12-week study, daily moderate-intensity exercise significantly improved cardiometabolic risk factors among diabetic individuals, an effect that was associated with decreased levels of sRAGE.

"Binding of AGE to RAGE induces sustained cellular dysfunction driven by long-term activation of the proinflammatory and proatherogenic mediators," explain Kyung Wan Min (Eulji University School of Medicine, Seoul, Korea) and colleagues.

However, "sRAGE binds to AGE but lacks an intracellular domain and thus fails to induce signal transduction," they add.

As exercise is known to protect individuals from atherosclerosis by reducing oxidative stress and systemic inflammation, Min and team investigated whether exercise is linked to changes in sRAGE level - a relationship that has not yet been explored.

They found that among 75 individuals, 38 people who participated in 60 mins of walking per day showed significant decreases in mean values for waist circumference, blood pressure, glycated hemoglobin, apolipoprotein B, and free fatty acid levels, after 12 weeks. In contrast, these cardiometabolic risk factors were not significantly reduced for 37 individuals who maintained their usual activities and did not participate in the exercise intervention.

Furthermore, a significant increase in mean circulating sRAGE and a significant decrease in mean high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP) were observed only in the exercise group, with the percentage of change in sRAGE being negatively correlated with that of hsCRP.

"In the present study… we observed the influence of exercise training on sRAGE and systemic inflammatory markers including CRP," write Min et al in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.

"The beneficial effects of exercise might be partly due to its antinflammatory effect related to the induction of sRAGE in patients with Type 2 diabetes," they say.

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