Sitting Interruption Modalities during Prolonged Sitting Acutely Improve Postprandial Metabolome in a Crossover Pilot Trial among Postmenopausal Women

• Published in: Metabolites 2024-08, Vol.14 (9), p.478
• Main Authors: Patterson, Jeffrey S, Rana, Brinda K, Gu, Haiwei, Sears, Dorothy D
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 5-hydroxynorvaline; Amino acid sequence; Amino acids; Analysis; anserine; Antihypertensives; aspartate; Cardiovascular disease; Catheters; Chronic illnesses; Diabetes; Exercise; Hypertension; Insulin resistance; Mass spectrometry; Meals; Metabolism; Metabolites; Metabolomics; Physiology; Pilot projects; Post-menopause; Postmenopausal women; postprandial metabolism; raffinose; Risk factors; Scientific imaging; Sedentary behavior; Thrombosis; Type 2 diabetes; Vasoactive agents; Womens health
• ISSN: 2218-1989; 2218-1989
• DOI: 10.3390/metabo14090478

Older adults sit during most hours of the day; more than 30% are considered physically inactive. The accumulation of prolonged sitting time is an exercise-independent risk factor for aging-related conditions such as cardiometabolic disease and cancer. Archival plasma samples from a randomized controlled, four-condition crossover study conducted in 10 postmenopausal women with overweight or obesity were analyzed. During 5-hour conditions completed on separate days, the trial tested three interruption modalities: two-minute stands each 20 min (STS), hourly ten-minute standing breaks (Stand), hourly two-minute walks (Walk), and a controlled sit. Fasting baseline and 5-hour end point (2 h postprandial) samples were used for targeted metabolomic profiling. Condition-associated metabolome changes were compared using paired -tests. STS eliminated the postprandial elevation of amino acid metabolites that was observed in the control. A norvaline derivative shown to have anti-hypertensive and -hyperglycemic effects was significantly increased during Stand and STS. Post-hoc testing identified 19 significantly different metabolites across the interventions. Tight metabolite clustering by condition was driven by amino acid, vasoactive, and sugar metabolites, as demonstrated by partial least squares-discriminant analyses. This exploratory study suggests that brief, low-intensity modalities of interrupting prolonged sitting can acutely elucidate beneficial cardiometabolic changes in postmenopausal women with cardiometabolic risk.