The proposed study aims to shed light on the function/importance/relevance of exercise-induced changes in exosomes to connective tissues. Exosomes are known to increase robustly in response to exercise. We have previously shown that serum isolated from subjects after they lift heavy weights increases human engineered ligament collagen content and mechanics more than serum from before they lift weight. Further, we showed that exercise-induced changes in hormones could not explain the change in ligament structure or function. These data indicate that there is a significant gap in our understanding of muscle-connective tissue crosstalk. To address this gap, the current proposal seeks to: i) isolate and sequence exosomal RNA (long non-coding, miR, and mRNA) and ii) determine whether exosomes isolated from serum after exercise increase engineered ligament mechanics and collagen content.
