@Article{Ren2026,
journal="Biology of Sport",
issn="0860-021X",
year="2026",
title="Sex dimorphism in serum lipid dynamics after acute exhaustive exercise",
abstract="This	study	aimed	to	characterize	serum	lipidomic	sexual	dimorphism	following	acute	exhaustive	exercise	under	stringently	controlled	conditions.	Forty	healthy	adults	(20 males,	20 females)	performed	a CPET	to	exhaustion,	with	objective	termination	criteria	and	females	tested	during	their	mid-luteal	phase.	Untargeted	lipidomics	was	performed	on	serum	at	baseline	and	at	multiple	postexercise	time	points.	Males	presented	a greater	absolute	V ̇ O2peak	(45.05	±	4.14 vs	36.80	±	3.69 ml/kg/min, P < 0.001)		but	a comparable	V ̇ O2peak when	FFM	was	normalized	(56.50	±	5.65 vs	55.45	±	5.82 ml/kgFFM/min, P =	0.567).	This	standardized	exhaustion	was	validated	by	both	sexes	achieving	similar,	high-intensity	termination	criteria	(PRERpeak	=	0.607,	PRPE	=	0.176,	PHRpeak	=	0.164).	A total	of	620 lipid	species	were	identified	via	untargeted	lipidomics.	Sex-stratified	analysis	identified	more	significantly	different	lipids	compared	to	pooled-sex	analysis	(male:179,	female:288).	Key	sex discriminating	lipids	included	PE	36:4,	PC	32:1,	SM	d18:1/25:0,	BMP	34:1,	and	PC	36:4.	Cluster	analysis	revealed	three	recovery	patterns,	with	lipid	distribution	differing	significantly	by	sex.	This	study	demonstrates	that	distinct	metabolic	response	patterns	exist	between	sexes	when	standardized	exhaustion	is	achieved.	Sex-stratified	analysis	identified	more	sex-specific	lipids	and	pinpointed	five	sex-discriminating	lipid	molecular	markers.	The	study revealed three different lipid recovery patterns, establishing that identical physiological endpoints arise from	distinct	metabolic	mechanisms	and	underscoring	the	importance	of	sex-stratified	analysis	in	exercise	metabolism research.",
author="Ren, Zhongxun
and Wu, Baile
and Tang, Chunxue
and Qian, Jiayu
and Fan, Zihan
and Zhang, YanYan
and Shi, Lijun",
pages="1071--1081",
doi="10.5114/biolsport.2026.158677",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.5114/biolsport.2026.158677"
}