Exploring the role of adipokines in exercise-induced inhibition of tumor growth

Abstract

The integration of exercise prescriptions into cancer adjuvant therapy presents challenges stemming from the ambiguity surrounding the precise mechanism through which exercise intervention mitigates the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) mortality and recurrence. Elucidation of this specific mechanism has substantial social and clinical implications. In this study, tumor-bearing mice engaged in voluntary wheel running exhibited a notable decrease in tumor growth, exceeding 30%. Microarray analysis revealed an upregulation of cytokine-related pathways as a potential explanation for this effect. The inclusion of granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) was found to enhance tumor cell proliferation, while the absence of GM-CSF resulted in a marked inhibition of tumor cell growth. The findings suggest that exercise-induced serum from mice can impede the proliferation of mouse tumor cells, with the adipokine chemerin inhibiting the growth factor GM-CSF. Additionally, exercise was found to stimulate chemerin secretion by brown adipose tissue. Chemerin suppression led to a reduction in the inhibition of tumor cell proliferation. The results of this study suggest that exercise may stimulate the release of adipokines from brown adipose tissue, transport them through the blood to the distant tumor microenvironment, and downregulate GM-CSF expression, alleviating tumor immunosuppression in the tumor microenvironment, thereby inhibiting at HCC progression. These findings provide a theoretical basis for incorporating exercise prescription into cancer treatment.