Exercise and Mitochondrial Health

Dear Colleagues,

It is well-known that mitochondria are highly sensitive to and changeable with exercise. Exercise promotes mitochondrial biogenesis in many organs and tissues in addition to skeletal muscle, so "exercise promotes mitochondrial biogenesis to prevent or ameliorate a disease" has become a scientific paradigm. This paradigm guides our interpretation of current data and our hypotheses for the future. However, there are many interesting questions that have not been well-addressed. For example, how can we define mitochondrial health? Does exercise promoting mitochondrial biogenesis mean that exercise promotes mitochondrial health? With the advent of single-cell gene sequencing, there is growing evidence that the emphasis on "mitochondrial number" may ignore the heterogeneity of mitochondria. In addition, "exercise-induced mitochondrial biogenesis" as a positive physiological adaptation often contradicts the interpretation of complex pathologies. The reason for this is that some diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and tumors, may be associated with increased mitochondria, so how to evaluate the benefit of exercise remains confusing. Is it possible that mitochondria, as organelles for energy production and cell signaling, are in excess or dysregulated? Experimental and evolutionary evidence suggests that exercise promotes mitochondrial biogenesis as a cellular response to increased oxygen uptake. It may be that only mitochondria can cope with cellular damage caused by hyperoxia, but is this necessarily beneficial to ameliorating disease? How to understand the cellular phenomenon of exercise-induced mitochondrial biogenesis deserves our colleagues' consideration and attention. In addition, mitochondrial biogenesis beyond skeletal muscle is also common in exercise, but the integrative physiology of exercise between multiple organs is lacking in convincing theories.

This Special Issue welcomes manuscripts that specifically focus on exercise and mitochondria. Authors are encouraged to submit original articles and comprehensive reviews associated with this topic.

In particular, the topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

• Exercise and mitochondrial plasticity;
• Exercise and mitochondrial-related disease;
• Integrative physiology of exercise;
• Exercise and mitochondrial heterogeneity;
• Exercise and mitochondrial adaptations beyond muscles;
• Exercise and mitochondrial signaling;
• Methods and technology in exploring exercise and mitochondria.

Dr. Shuzhe Ding
Dr. Zhengtang Qi
Dr. Yi Sun
Dr. Zhe Zhang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Life is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• exercise
• mitochondrial
• diseases