2.1 Participants

The present study used archived serum samples from the HART-D study (Church et al., 2010). A total of 262 participants with type 2 diabetes and HbA_1c levels ranging from 6.5% to 11.0% were recruited for the parent study. All participants had a sedentary lifestyle, defined as less than 2 days per week of exercise, less than 60 min per week of aerobic exercise, and no resistance exercise. Of the 262 participants, a sub-cohort of 164 patients consented to be included in subsequent studies (mean ± SD: age 58 ± 8 years, female n = 103). Participants who did not meet the study criteria or exhibited other co-morbidities such as body mass index greater than 48.0 kg/m², blood pressure greater than 160/100 mmHg, fasting triglycerides greater than 500 mg/dL, urine protein greater than 100 mg/dL, serum creatinine greater than 1.5 mg/dL, and past medical history were excluded from the parent HART-D study.