impact of high-intensity interval training on mir-21 and mir-122 expression and metabolic parameters in middle-aged men with metabolic syndrome

Background: metabolic syndrome, a problem of the present age, is a combination of several medical issues, and mirnas play important regulatory roles in metabolic syndrome. many studies indicate that high-intensity interval training (hitt) may improve risk factors for metabolic syndrome.this study aimed to investigate the effect of 8 weeks of hiit training on the changes in mir-21, mir-122, alanine aminotransferase (alt), aspartate aminotransferase (ast), low-density lipoprotein (ldl), lipid profile, and glucose.methods: in this quasi-experimental study, middle-aged male (n=19) volunteers with metabolic syndrome (body mass index (bmi)>30) were randomly assigned to the control (n=9) and training (n=10) groups. the training program consisted of 8 weeks of hiit training with 4 sets of workouts with an intensity of 80-90% heart rate for the training group (3 sessions per week during the first 4 weeks and 4 sessions per week during the second 4 weeks). blood samples were collected from the subjects 48 hours before and after the last training session to analyze mir-21, mir-122, alt, ast, hdl, ldl, triglyceride, cholesterol, and glucose. the within-group and between-group differences of data were analyzed using the paired t-tests and analysis of covariance at a significance level of p˂0.05 in spss software.results: this study indicated that hiit caused a significant decrease in mir-122, alt, ast, triglyceride, cholesterol, glucose, body weight indicators, fat percentage, and bmi (p˂0.05). also, a significant increase in mir-21 and hdl levels was observed following hiit training (p˂0.05).conclusion: hiit training seems essential in metabolic changes, such as reducing the lipid profile, decreasing glucose, and improving liver damage by affecting mir-21 and mir-122 indicators as small regulatory transcripts. however, more extensive studies are needed in this field.