Exercise-induced BDNF promotes PPAR-dependent reprogramming of lipid metabolism in skeletal muscle during exercise recovery

Post-exercise recovery is essential to resolve metabolic perturbations and promote long-term cellular remodeling in response to exercise. Here, we report that muscle-generated brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) elicits post-exercise recovery and metabolic reprogramming in skeletal muscle. BDNF increased the post-exercise expression of the gene encoding PPAR delta (peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor delta), a transcription factor that is a master regulator of lipid metabolism. After exercise, mice with muscle-specific Bdnf knockout (MBKO) exhibited impairments in PPAR delta-regulated metabolic gene expression, decreased intramuscular lipid content, reduced beta-oxidation, and dysregulated mitochondrial dynamics. Moreover, MBKO mice required a longer period to recover from a bout of exercise and did not show increases in exercise-induced endurance capacity. Feeding naive mice with the bioavailable BDNF mimetic 7,8-dihydroxyflavone resulted in effects that mimicked exercise-induced adaptations, including improved exercise capacity. Together, our findings reveal that BDNF is an essential myokine for exercise-induced metabolic recovery and remodeling in skeletal muscle.