Dynamic Acylcarnitine Responses to Exercise and Recovery in Aging Skeletal Muscle: Evidence, Interpretation, and a Validation Framework
5 affiliations
- 1School of Public Foundations, Zhengzhou Yellow River Nursing Vocational College, Zhengzhou 450066, China
- 2Faculty of Health Sciences and Sports, Macao Polytechnic University, Macao 999078, China
- 3Sport, Health and Communication, Beijing Normal-Hong Kong Baptist University, Zhuhai 519087, China
- 4School of Sports Science, Beijing Sport University, Beijing 100084, China
- 5Department of Physical Education, Henan Sport University, Zhengzhou 450044, China
Abstract
Dynamic acylcarnitine profiling could reveal how aging muscle handles an energetic challenge, but concentration changes are often interpreted without separating adaptive buffering from impaired oxidation. This narrative review integrates human exercise, aging, intervention, mechanistic, and analytical evidence to define what exercise–recovery trajectories can establish. Three distinctions emerge: blood concentration is not muscle flux; acetyl buffering is not equivalent to incomplete fatty-acid oxidation; and oxidation capacity, metabolic flexibility, and functional recovery require different validation outcomes. A muscle study involving 44 young and older adults found broadly conserved acute responses despite differences in resting pools and activity. A 25-week intervention in 14 older men increased muscle carnitine and exercise fat oxidation by approximately 20% without improving insulin-stimulated glucose disposal. These findings challenge a uniform interpretation of altered acylcarnitines as an aging defect. The review connects molecular annotation, specimen choice, workload, feeding, and sampling time to response features and bioenergetic or functional outcomes. Its contribution is a validation framework for distinguishing physiological adaptation from persistent metabolic mismatch and testing whether dynamic measurements add information beyond resting profiles. Direct older-adult recovery studies remain limited. Repeatability, tissue or flux comparison, and external validation are required before diagnostic thresholds or individualized prescriptions can be justified.
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BibTeX
@article{lu2026dynamic,
title = {{Dynamic Acylcarnitine Responses to Exercise and Recovery in Aging Skeletal Muscle: Evidence, Interpretation, and a Validation Framework}},
author = {Shanshan Lu and Minghao Lian and Xin Fang and Hao Liu and Chang Liu and Hongyi Wang},
journal = {Metabolites},
year = {2026},
month = nov,
doi = {10.3390/metabo16110854},
url = {https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/16/11/854},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Dynamic Acylcarnitine Responses to Exercise and Recovery in Aging Skeletal Muscle: Evidence, Interpretation, and a Validation Framework
AU - Shanshan Lu
AU - Minghao Lian
AU - Xin Fang
AU - Hao Liu
AU - Chang Liu
AU - Hongyi Wang
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/11/04
JO - Metabolites
DO - 10.3390/metabo16110854
UR - https://www.mdpi.com/2218-1989/16/11/854
AB - Dynamic acylcarnitine profiling could reveal how aging muscle handles an energetic challenge, but concentration changes are often interpreted without separating adaptive buffering from impaired oxidation. This narrative review integrates human exercise, aging, intervention, mechanistic, and analytical evidence to define what exercise–recovery trajectories can establish. Three distinctions emerge: blood concentration is not muscle flux; acetyl buffering is not equivalent to incomplete fatty-acid oxidation; and oxidation capacity, metabolic flexibility, and functional recovery require different validation outcomes. A muscle study involving 44 young and older adults found broadly conserved acute responses despite differences in resting pools and activity. A 25-week intervention in 14 older men increased muscle carnitine and exercise fat oxidation by approximately 20% without improving insulin-stimulated glucose disposal. These findings challenge a uniform interpretation of altered acylcarnitines as an aging defect. The review connects molecular annotation, specimen choice, workload, feeding, and sampling time to response features and bioenergetic or functional outcomes. Its contribution is a validation framework for distinguishing physiological adaptation from persistent metabolic mismatch and testing whether dynamic measurements add information beyond resting profiles. Direct older-adult recovery studies remain limited. Repeatability, tissue or flux comparison, and external validation are required before diagnostic thresholds or individualized prescriptions can be justified.
SN - 2218-1989
ER -