Exercise, sex, menstrual cycle phase, and 17β-estradiol influence metabolism-related genes in human skeletal muscle

Higher fat and lower carbohydrate and amino acid oxidation are observed in women compared with men during endurance exercise. We hypothesized that the observed sex difference is due to estrogen and that menstrual cycle phase or supplementation of men with 17beta-estradiol (E(2)) would coordinately influence the mRNA content of genes involved in lipid and/or carbohydrate metabolism in skeletal muscle. Twelve men and twelve women had muscle …