Research

Hormonal

The nuclear receptor NR4A3 is a critical regulator of exercise-induced metabolic responses, including glucose uptake and mitochondrial function, as its silencing ablates these benefits in human muscle cells.

NR4A3 is a key gene that helps muscles respond to exercise by improving glucose uptake and mitochondrial function. While you cannot directly 'dose' this gene, regular exercise upregulates it, thereby enhancing metabolic health.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
Silencing of NR4A3 ablated this effect [glucose uptake]... Silencing NR4A3 decreased basal and maximal oxygen consumption rate... These results establish a role for NR4A3 in regulating the metabolic response to exercise.
Nicolas J. Pillon et al. · Nature Communications · 2020

Why this rating

Strong in vitro evidence (primary human myotubes) supporting the meta-analysis findings, but lacks in vivo human intervention data for NR4A3 modulation.

Source

Transcriptomic profiling of skeletal muscle adaptations to exercise and inactivity

Nicolas J. Pillon et al. · Nature Communications · 2020

DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-13869-w

Meta-analysis · 66 studiesCited 449×
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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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