Physical exercise impact on aging-related pathways across generations in C. elegans

Abstract

Aging has been defined as a gradual functional decline with a progressive physiological integrity loss, increasing the organism’s vulnerability to death. Otherwise, this described deterioration is the major risk factor for most current human pathologies, including neurodegenerative diseases, cancer, cardiovascular disorders, and diabetes. However, in the last decades, non-pharmacological treatments like physical exercise have provided general health benefits against aging decline. In this study, we aim to analyze how lifestyle factors such as physical exercise can modify the molecular expression of aging-related pathways and observe if this gene expression modification pattern is inherited transgenerationally throughout the following generations. Among all hallmarks of aging process, in this study we highlight epigenetic alterations. Even though extensive studies of transgenerational epigenetic inheritance have been reported in Caenorhabditis elegans, there is still a gap regarding how physical exercise might benefit organisms through epigenetic pathways. Then, we implement a physical exercise treatment in the first C. elegans generation, and we analyze the subsequent generations to study transgenerational heritable changes in gene expression involved in aging-related pathways. We emphasized on CREB transcription factor pathway, early growth response 1 (EGR1) transcription factor, superoxide dismutase 1 (Sod1) as a powerful antioxidant, and disintegrin and metalloproteinase domain-containing protein (ADAM10) pathway since its role in correct neurological development. Key words: exercise, C. elegans, aging, transgenerational epigenetic