Leader: Giuseppe Pugliese (SAPIENZA), Sarah Damanti (UNISR); Other collaborator(s):
Impaired exercise capacity and reduced trainability can be considered early markers of aging, cardiometabolic disorders and physical disability. Assessing exercise capacity and its cardiorespiratory and neuromuscular determinants may predict adverse outcomes, aid in designing and implementing personalized training interventions and serve as a tool in evaluating the effect of therapeutic strategies in aging people with type 2 diabetes.
Brief description of the activities and of the intermediate results: The research protocol has been registered with clinicaltrials.gov and approved by the Ethics Committee of Sapienza University of Rome. Between November 2023 and March 2024, the contracts for study conduction between the Department of Experimental Medicine of Sapienza University of Rome, Sant'Andrea University Hospital of Rome, and Foro Italico University of Rome have been finalized. One research contract has been activated and another one will be activated by the end of April. The equipment has been set up and the study database has been organized. The recruitment procedures have been started and the first group of participants is going to perform the baseline assessments and to initiate the six-month exercise training program.
Main policy/industry/practice implications: We have drafted and submitted to the Local Ethics Committee the research project “Identification and proactive management of the frailty syndrome at the Casa della Salute "Le Piagge", Firenze, a monocentric prospective longitudinal cohort, non-profit, on people of 75 year-old.
The recruitment procedures have been continued. The research contract has started. External funding has been obtained for paying the insurance for study participants, as this cannot be paid with PNRR funds.
The first group of participants has performed the baseline assessments and initiated the six-month exercise training program.
Additional diabetic patients and nondiabetic controls have been recruited; they have performed the baseline assessments and initiated the six-month exercise training program. The previously enrolled participants have continued the exercise training program.
In the first trimester of 2025 (January to March), the following activities for WP2 project entitled “EXercise capacity and TRAinability in Type 2 Diabetes (EXTRA-T2D)” have been performed:
1. The enrolled patients have continued the exercise training program at at the gym facility of the Center for Sports and Physical Exercise Medicine of the Foundation of the University of Rome “Foro Italico”
2. Additional patients have been required and examined for baseline cardiorespiratory and neuromuscular parameters at the Exercise Physiology Laboratory of the University of Rome “Foro Italico” and Sant’Andrea University Hospital.
Continued patient recruitment during these three last months, and in the patients already recruited the exercise training program or post-training follow-up evaluation was conducted
Iacobini C, Vitale M, Haxhi J, Menini S, Pugliese G. Impaired Remodeling of White Adipose Tissue in Obesity and Aging: From Defective Adipogenesis to Adipose Organ Dysfunction. Cells. 2024 Apr 30;13(9):763. doi: 10.3390/cells13090763. PMID: 38727299; PMCID: PMC11083890.