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TL;DR
This preclinical study in singly-housed mice found that 24 days of voluntary wheel running reduced anxiety-like behaviors exclusively in males, while it reduced jejunal pro-inflammatory markers exclusively in females.
Brain, Behavior, & Immunity - Health · 8 authors, 4 centres
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This preclinical study in singly-housed mice found that 24 days of voluntary wheel running reduced anxiety-like behaviors exclusively in males, while it reduced jejunal pro-inflammatory markers exclusively in females.
This preclinical study investigated the sex-specific effects of voluntary exercise on behavior and the gut microbiota-immune-brain axis in singly-housed C57BL/6N mice. Male and female mice had voluntary access to running wheels for 24 days or remained sedentary. Behavioral tests showed that exercise reduced anxiety-like behaviors in the elevated plus maze and altered grooming patterns in males only. In terms of biological markers, exercise downregulated hippocampal Cx3cr1 expression in both sexes, but reductions in jejunal pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6 and TNF-α) were observed only in females. Cecal microbiota analysis revealed sex-specific changes in bacterial composition and predicted functional pathways. The study concludes that short-term voluntary exercise has sex-specific benefits for mental and intestinal health, with behavioral effects in males potentially linked to distinct gut microbiota responses compared to females. Limitations include the use of a single housing condition and a short exercise duration, and the direct functional consequences of the observed molecular changes remain unclear.