Age-Dependent Differences in Exercise Response Among Healthy Women: Impact on Inflammation, Lipids Profile and...

Background: Inflammatory and metabolic risk factors are associated with adverse health outcomes among aging women. Physical activity may reduce these detrimental changes, helping to promote healthier aging. Methods: Seventy-nine non-obese women, aged 20-50 years, completed a supervised 4-8 week aerobic training program with measurements obtained before and after the intervention. The 20-30-year group (n = 29) completed a 4-week training program, with 13 participants fasting during training, while the 30-50-year group (n = 50) completed an 8-week program. Fasting blood sugar (FBS), lipid profile, insulin, Homeostatic Model Assessment for Insulin Resistance (HOMA IR), body composition, multiple cytokines, oxidative stress markers and leukocyte telomere length were assessed. Mixed-effects linear models were used to test age-by-activity (before versus after) interactions, adjusting for body mass index (BMI), fasting status and training duration. Results: Physical activity was associated with a higher superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, lower tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF α) concentrations, increased weekly Metabolic Equivalent of Task (METs) and a modest reduction in high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Significant age-by-activity interactions were identified for fat-free mass, total cholesterol, HDL cholesterol, FBS and TNF α, exhibiting attenuated or reversed age-related slopes for these traits after training. Specifically, older active women exhibited less age-related increases in FBS and TNF α and greater age-related reductions in total cholesterol, whereas the preservation of fat-free mass was more pronounced among younger participants. Conclusions: A short moderate-intensity aerobic program was sufficient to improve antioxidant defenses and inflammatory status and reshape age-group-specific responses to the training of selected glycemic, lipid, inflammatory and functional markers in healthy women, partly mitigating adverse age-associated changes, particularly in older participants. By modeling age-by-activity interactions across various metabolic and inflammatory risk factors, this study provides evidence that short-term moderate aerobic training can reshape age-group-specific cardiometabolic responses to training.