Medium chain acylcarnitines dominate the metabolite pattern in humans under moderate intensity exercise and support lipid oxidation.

BACKGROUND: Exercise is an extreme physiological challenge for skeletal muscle energy metabolism and has notable health benefits. We aimed to identify and characterize metabolites, which are components of the regulatory network mediating the beneficial metabolic adaptation to exercise. METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: First, we investigated plasma from healthy human subjects who completed two independent running studies under moderate, predominantly aerobic conditions. Samples obtained prior to and immediately after running and then 3 and 24 h into the recovery phase were analyzed by a non-targeted (NT-) metabolomics approach applying liquid chromatography-qTOF-mass spectrometry. Under t…