IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v16y2025i1d10.1038_s41467-025-58726-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Long-term physical exercise facilitates putative glymphatic and meningeal lymphatic vessel flow in humans

Author

Listed:
  • Roh-Eul Yoo

    (Seoul National University College of Medicine
    Seoul National University Hospital)

  • Jun-Hee Kim

    (Seoul National University)

  • Hyo Youl Moon

    (Seoul National University)

  • Jae Yeon Park

    (Seoul National University)

  • Seongmin Cheon

    (Chonnam National University
    Seoul National University Hospital)

  • Hyun-Suk Shin

    (Seoul National University Hospital)

  • Dohyun Han

    (Seoul National University Hospital
    Seoul National University Hospital
    Seoul University College of Medicine)

  • Yukyoum Kim

    (Seoul National University)

  • Sung-Hong Park

    (Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST))

  • Seung Hong Choi

    (Seoul National University College of Medicine
    Seoul National University Hospital
    Institute for Basic Science (IBS)
    Seoul National University)

Abstract

Regular voluntary exercise has been shown to increase waste transport through the glymphatic system in mice. Here, we investigate the impact of physical exercise on both upstream and downstream brain waste clearance in healthy volunteers via noninvasive MR imaging. Putative glymphatic influx, evaluated using intravenous contrast-enhanced dynamic T1 mapping, increases significantly at the putamen after 12 weeks of long-term exercise using a cycle ergometer. The putative meningeal lymphatic vessel size and flow, measured by intravenous contrast-enhanced black-blood imaging and IR-ALADDIN technique, increase significantly after long-term exercise. Plasma proteomics reveals significant changes in inflammation-related and immune-related proteins (down-regulated: S100A8, S100A9, PSMA3, and DEFA1A3; up-regulated: J chain) after long-term exercise, which correlate with putative glymphatic influx or mLV flow. Our results suggest that increased glymphatic and mLV flow may be the potential mechanism underlying the neuroprotective effects of exercise on cognition, highlighting the importance of long-term, regular exercise.

Suggested Citation

  • Roh-Eul Yoo & Jun-Hee Kim & Hyo Youl Moon & Jae Yeon Park & Seongmin Cheon & Hyun-Suk Shin & Dohyun Han & Yukyoum Kim & Sung-Hong Park & Seung Hong Choi, 2025. "Long-term physical exercise facilitates putative glymphatic and meningeal lymphatic vessel flow in humans," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 16(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58726-1
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-025-58726-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-58726-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-025-58726-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:16:y:2025:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-025-58726-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.