ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sports Act. Living
Sec. Physical Activity in the Prevention and Management of Disease
This article is part of the Research TopicPreventing Obesity-Related Degenerative Diseases Through Lifestyle ChangesView all 5 articles
The association of Tai Chi Exercise with the Methylation Levels of the IL20 Promoter
Provisionally accepted
- 1Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
- 2Chung Yuan Christian University, Taoyuan, Taiwan
- 3Department of Neurology, Changhua Christian Hospital, Changhua, Taiwan
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Objective: This study aimed to investigate the associations between DNA methylation levels of the IL-20 and Tai Chi exercise. Methods and Results: Data from the Taiwan Biobank, including 1057 individuals aged 30 to 70, were analyzed. Methylation levels were assessed using the Infinium® MethylationEPIC BeadChipEPIC array. Statistical analyses were conducted to determine the associations between exercise types and methylation levels. The analysis revealed that participants who engaged in Tai Chi exhibited significantly higher methylation levels of the IL-20 promoter (mean β = 0.9405, SE ± 0.0019) compared to those who did not exercise (mean β = 0.9376, SE ± 0.0004). In univariate regression, Tai Chi exercise was positively associated with IL-20 promoter methylation (β = 0.00422, 95% CI: 0.00001–0.00843, p = 0.0493), whereas other forms of exercise showed a negative association (β = -0.00160, 95% CI: -0.00266 to -0.00053). Men exhibited lower IL-20 methylation levels, while older age and obesity showed similar trends. In the multivariate regression analysis, Tai Chi exercise remained positively associated with IL-20 promoter methylation (β = 0.00454, 95% CI: 0.00012 to 0.00896). Conversely, other exercise types were associated with a β-coefficient of -0.00125 (95% CI: -0.00239 to -0.00012). Conclusion: The findings suggest that Tai Chi exercise was associated with higher methylation levels of the IL-20 promoter. This association may indicate that the health benefits of Tai Chi are linked to immunological processes mediated by IL-20.
Keywords: IL-20, Tai Chi exercise, Methylation, gender, age
Received: 05 Mar 2025; Accepted: 25 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Chiang, Wu, Chen, Nfor, LU, Chen and Liaw. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yung-Po Liaw
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