Research Article Effect of Lower and Upper Body High Intensity Training on Genes Associated with Cellular Stress Response MaBgorzata gychowska, 1 Andrzej Kochanowicz, 2 Kazimierz Kochanowicz, 3 Jan Mieszkowski, 4 BartBomiej NiespodziNski, 4 and StanisBaw Sawczyn 5 1 Department of Life Sciences, Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport, Kazimierza G´ orskiego 1, 80-336 Gda´ nsk, Poland 2 Department of Gymnastics and Dance, Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport, Kazimierza G´ orskiego 1, 80-336 Gda´ nsk, Poland 3 Department of Teory of Sport and Human Motorics, Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport, Kazimierza G´ orskiego 1, 80-336 Gda´ nsk, Poland 4 Institute of Physical Education, Kazimierz Wielki University, Sportowa 2, 85-091 Bydgoszcz, Poland 5 Department of Sport for All, Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport, Kazimierza G´ orskiego 1, 80-336 Gda´ nsk, Poland Correspondence should be addressed to Małgorzata ˙ Zychowska; zychowska.m@gmail.com Received 6 January 2017; Accepted 20 April 2017; Published 15 May 2017 Academic Editor: Takashi Yazawa Copyright © 2017 Małgorzata ˙ Zychowska et al. Tis is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Tis study aimed to compare the efect of upper and lower body high intensity exercise (HIE) on select gene expression in athletes. Fourteen elite male artistic gymnasts (age 20.9 ± 2.6 years; weight 68.6 ± 7.2 kg; fat free mass 63.6 ± 6.7 kg; height 1.70 ± 0.04 m) performed lower and upper body 30 s Wingate Tests (WAnTs) before and afer eight weeks of specifc HIIT. Two milliliters of blood was collected before and afer (5, 30 min, resp.) lower and upper body WAnTs, and select gene expression was determined by PCR. Eight weeks of HIIT caused a signifcant increase in maximal power (722 to 751 Wat), relative peak power in the lower body WAnTs (10.1 to 11 W/kg), mean power (444 to 464 W), and relative mean power (6.5 to 6.8 W/kg). No signifcant diferences in lower versus upper body gene expression were detected afer HIIT, and a signifcant decrease in the IL6/IL10 ratio was observed afer lower (−2 ∧ 0.57  = 0.0019) and upper (−2 ∧ 0.5  = 0.03) WAnTs following eight weeks of HIIT. It is hypothesized that a similar adaptive response to exercise may be obtained by lower and upper body exercise. 1. Introduction High intensity interval training (HIIT) has become increas- ingly popular in recent years, in both sport and recreation, as it produces results faster in various athletic categories: muscle strength, muscle oxidative capacity, and muscle glycogen content. Tese results are similar to those obtained by conventional endurance training [1, 2]. Gaesser and Angadi [3] suggested this type of training is better than long duration, moderate-intensity exercise training for improving ftness and inducing benefcial metabolic adaptations. Kaspar et al. [4] reported that the health-promoting efects are similar to those observed by endurance training. During exercise, changes in genes associated with cellular stress response are relatively common. Genes encoding heat shock proteins (HSP) or interleukins are easily induced by physical exercise due to alterations in oxidative stress, tem- perature, heat, and metabolic stress [5, 6]. Te adaptive efect to exercises decreases proinfammatory and increases anti- infammatory cytokines [7, 8] and decreases HSPA1A mRNA [9]. Previous data regarding high intensity exercise suggests that this type of muscle efort causes metabolic changes on multiple levels, altering the production of interleukins and heat shock proteins [10–12]. It has been postulated that pro- duction of pro- and anti-infammatory proteins accompanies the stress response, regardless of the kind of stressors (e.g., temperature, physical efort) or signalling pathway activation, including the HSF-1 and NF-kB pathways [11, 12]. Changes in genes associated with infammation and HSP show the result of alterations in signalling via these pathways. Tere is Hindawi BioMed Research International Volume 2017, Article ID 2768546, 8 pages https://doi.org/10.1155/2017/2768546