Far-infrared therapy promotes exercise capacity and glucose metabolism in mice by modulating microbiota homeostasis and activating AMPK

The benefits of physical exercise on human health make it desirable to identify new approaches that would mimic or potentiate the effects of exercise to treat metabolic diseases. However, whether far-infrared (FIR) hyperthermia therapy could be used as exercise mimetic to realize wide-ranging metabolic regulation, and its underling mechanisms remain unclear. Here, a specific far-infrared (FIR) rays generated from graphene-based hyperthermia devices might promote exercise capacity and metabolisms. The material characterization showed that the graphene synthesized by chemical vapour deposition (CVD) was different from carbon fiber, with single-layer structure and high electrothermal transform efficiency. The emission spectra generated by graphene-FIR device would maximize matching those adsorbed by tissues. Graphene-FIR enhanced both core and epidermal temperatures, leading to increased blood flow in the femoral muscle and the abdominal region. The combination of microbiomic and metabolomic analysis revealed that graphene-FIR modulates the metabolism of the gut-muscle axis. This modulation was characterized by an increased abundance of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA)-producing bacteria and AMP, while lactic acid levels decreased. Furthermore, the principal routes involved in glucose metabolism, such as glycolysis and gluconeogenesis, were found to be altered. Graphene-FIR managed to stimulate AMPK activity by activating GPR43, thus enhancing muscle glucose uptake. Furthermore, a microbiota disorder model also demonstrated that the graphene-FIR effectively restore the exercise endurance with enhanced p-AMPK and GLUT4. Our results provided convincing evidence that graphene-based FIR therapy promoted exercise capacity and glucose metabolism via AMPK in gut-muscle axis. These novel findings regarding the therapeutic effects of graphene-FIR suggested its potential utility as a mimetic agent in clinical management of metabolic disorders.