The change in thyroid hormone signaling by altered training intensity in male rat skeletal muscle

Aerobic (sub lactate threshold; sub-LT) exercise training facilitates oxidative phosphorylation and glycolysis of skeletal muscle. Thyroid hormone (TH) also facilitates such metabolic events. Thus, we studied whether TH signaling pathway is activated by treadmill training. Male adult rats received 30 min/day treadmill training with different exercise intensity for 12 days. Then plasma lactate and thyrotropin (TSH) levels were measured. By lactate levels, rats were divided into stationary control (SC, 0 m/min), sub-LT (15 m/min) and supra lactate threshold (supra-LT; 25 m/min) training groups. Immediately after the last training, the soleus muscles were dissected out to measure TH receptor (TR) mRNA and protein expressions. Other rats received intraperitoneal injection of T3, 24 h after the last training and sacrificed 6 h after the injection to measure TH target gene expression. TSH level was suppressed in both sub-LT and supra-LT groups during the exercise. TRβ1 mRNA and protein levels were increased in sub-LT group. Sensitivity to T3 was altered in several TH-target genes by training. Particularly, induction of Na(+)/K(+)-ATPase β1 expression by T3 was significantly augmented in sub-LT group. These results indicate that sub-LT training alters TH signaling at least in part by increasing TRβ1 expression. Such TH signaling alteration may contribute metabolic adaptation in skeletal muscle during physical training.