Acute Effects of Vigorous-intensity Aerobic Exercise on Glymphatic Flow in Healthy Adults

Neurodegeneration Clinical Trial

— GLYMREG  

Official title:

Academic Investigational Study of Acute Effects of Vigorous-intensity Aerobic Exercise on Glymphatic Flow in Healthy Adults

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT04255758
• Other study ID #: T6/2020
• Status: Recruiting
• Phase: N/A
• Start date: February 8, 2021
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2021

Study information

• Verified date: February 2021
• Source: Turku University Hospital
• Contact: Ilkka Heinonen, PhD
• Phone: +358 408 393 962
• Email: ilkka.heinonen[@]utu.fi
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Interventional

Clinical Trial Summary

This study investigates changes in glymphatic flow in the brain acutely after vigorous-intensity steady-state aerobic exercise. Twenty subjects (10 male and 10 female) perform 25 minute submaximal cycle ergometry exercise and the changes in the glymphatic flow and cerebral perfusion are evaluated using a variety of MRI sequences (e.g. MREG).

Description:

The glymphatic system is a drainage system for the brain to help maintain fluid balance and extract waste metabolites. Glymphatic system function (healthy glymphatic flow) may prevent accumulation of harmful substances and therefore slow down the onset of neurodegenerative diseases.

The hypothesis is, that glymphatic flow could be increased through exercise and enhanced cerebral arterial pulsality, which might explain some of the brain health benefits of exercise proven in epidemiological studies. This study indirectly investigates the acute changes in the glymphatic flow acutely after aerobic exercise using MREG that measures pulse wave propagation as an indirect surrogate marker for glymphatic flow.

Twenty healthy subjects (n=20, 10 male, 10 female, age 18-45 years) will perform 25 minute 70%VO2max cycle ergometry exercise. The glymphatic flow and cerebral perfusion will be measured using magnetic resonance imaging sequences before and after exercise. The glymphatic flow is measured using 10 Hz fMRI technique called magnetic resonance encephalography (MREG). In addition, perfusion MRI is used to evaluate changes in brain perfusion.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Recruiting
• Enrollment: 20
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2021
• Est. primary completion date: December 31, 2021
• Accepts healthy volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers
• Gender: All
• Age group: 18 Years to 45 Years

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

• Age 18-45

• BMI 18-30

• Resting Blood pressure < 140/90 mmHg

Exclusion Criteria:

• History of a cardiac event

• Insulin or medically treated diabetes

• Any chronic disease or condition that could create a hazard to the subject safety, endanger the study procedures or interfere with the interpretation of study results

• Presence of ferromagnetic objects that would make MR imaging contraindicated

• Claustrophobia

• Abundant use of alcohol

• Use of narcotics

• Smoking of tobacco or consuming snuff tobacco

• Diagnosed depressive or bipolar disorder

• Abnormalities in resting ECG (revised by the study physician)

• Pregnancy

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Glymphatic System
• Nerve Degeneration
• Neurodegeneration

Intervention

Other:
• Cycle Ergometer Exercise
25 minutes, 70% VO2max steady state cycle ergometry exercise

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Finland	Turku PET Centre	Turku

Sponsors (1)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Turku University Hospital

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Finland, 

References & Publications (2)

Rajna Z, Raitamaa L, Tuovinen T, Heikkila J, Kiviniemi V, Seppanen T. 3D Multi-Resolution Optical Flow Analysis of Cardiovascular Pulse Propagation in Human Brain. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 2019 Sep;38(9):2028-2036. doi: 10.1109/TMI.2019.2904762. Epub 2019 Mar 15. — View Citation

von Holstein-Rathlou S, Petersen NC, Nedergaard M. Voluntary running enhances glymphatic influx in awake behaving, young mice. Neurosci Lett. 2018 Jan 1;662:253-258. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2017.10.035. Epub 2017 Oct 25. — View Citation

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	MREG cardiovascular pulse wavefront	Is processed into three-dimensional vector fields and used as an assessment of glymphatic flow, scanned once before and multiple times after exercise intervention in 5-minute sequences	3 hours
Secondary	Cerebral perfusion fMRI	5-minute MR imaging sequences evaluating changes in blood flow, scanned once before and multiple times after exercise intervention	3 hours
Secondary	Heart rate (HR)	Wearable heart rate monitoring, measures heart beats per second, continuous throughout the study	3 hours
Secondary	Blood pressure (BP)	Blood pressure monitoring, evaluates systolic and diastolic pressures (mmHg) continuous throughout the study	3 hours