Exercise, exerkines, and cardiometabolic health: from individual players to a team sport

Figures

• 

  Figure 1. Substrate metabolism and fuel sources according to exercise intensity and duration. Exercise stimulates lipolysis and liberates free fatty acids (FFAs) that become fuel sources for the working skeletal muscle. Similarly, hepatic glycogenolysis and gluconeogenesis promote fuel substrates for the working muscle, and gluconeogenesis helps recycle metabolic end products of exercise (e.g., lactate, alanine, pyruvate). Skeletal muscle itself contains glycogen. Short and maximal-power activity is preferentially fueled by anaerobic metabolism phosphocreatine stores, which are quickly depleted, and subsequent glucose and glycogen stores, whereas sustained activity at lower intensities is primarily fueled by fatty acid oxidation.

• 

  Figure 2. Exerkines according to primary tissue source. Exercise-induced secreted and bioactive factors according to primary tissue origin. Note that several exerkines have multiple tissue sources.

• 

  Figure 3. Cardiovascular-specific exerkines. Exercise-induced secreted and bioactive factors relevant in cardiovascular physiology. Fractalkine, angiopoietin-1, VEGF, and nitric oxide have effects on vascular biology, including the coronary arteries, whereas 12,13-dihydroxy-9Z-octadecenoic acid (12,13-diHOME), IL-6, musclin, and myonectin have direct effects on the myocardium.