Article Text
Abstract
Introduction A low cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is a strong and independent predictor of cardiometabolic, cancer and all-cause mortality. To date, the mechanisms linking CRF with reduced mortality remain largely unknown. Metabolomics, which is a powerful metabolic phenotyping technology to unravel molecular mechanisms underlying complex phenotypes, could elucidate how CRF fosters human health.
Methods and analysis This study aims at systematically reviewing and meta-analysing the literature on metabolites of any human tissue sample, which are positively or negatively associated with CRF. Studies reporting estimated CRF will not be considered. No restrictions will be placed on the metabolomics technology used to measure metabolites. PubMed, Web of Science and EMBASE will be searched for relevant articles published until the date of the last search. Two authors will independently screen full texts of selected abstracts. References and citing articles of included articles will be screened for additional relevant publications. Data regarding study population, tissue samples, analytical technique, quality control, data processing, metabolites associated to CRF, cardiopulmonary exercise test protocol and exercise exhaustion criteria will be extracted. Methodological quality will be assessed using a modified version of QUADOMICS. Narrative synthesis as well as tabular/charted presentation of the extracted data will be included. If feasible, meta-analyses will be used to investigate the associations between identified metabolites and CRF. Potential sources of heterogeneity will be explored in meta-regressions.
Ethics and dissemination No ethics approval is required. The results will be published in a peer-reviewed journal and as conference presentation.
PROSPERO registration number CRD42020214375.
- aerobic fitness
- physical fitness
- metabolism
- sports & exercise medicine
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Footnotes
JI and AS-T are joint senior authors.
Twitter @CarrardJustin, @KarstenKnigste1, @StreeseL, @HanssenHenner, @HGallartAyala, @JuliJivanisevic
Contributors The following work has been developed in contribution of each coauthor. The manuscript underwent several revisions with substantial contributions provided by each coauthor. CG, JC and CA-H designed the search string. CG and JC wrote the protocol. CA-H was responsible for the search strategy. DI and JC designed the data synthesis strategy. CA-H reviewed the protocol, while LS, KK, TH, HH, HG-A, JI and AS-T critically revised it. JC registered the protocol in PROSPERO. JC, CG and LS will conduct the systematic review and meta-analysis. All authors provided critical feedback, have read and approved the final manuscript.
Funding This study was funded by the Department of Sport, Exercise and Health of the University of Basel, Switzerland.
Competing interests None declared.
Patient consent for publication Not required.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
Data availability statement Data sharing not applicable as no datasets generated and/or analysed for this study. All data relevant to the study are included in the article or uploaded as online supplemental information.