Acknowledgements

We thank Y. Cai, J. Capitaine, A. Mariscal, I. Millard, N. Belmahjoubi and N. Pachera (ULB Center for Diabetes Research, Université libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium) for their excellent technical support. Some of the data were presented as an abstract at the 60th EASD Annual Meeting in 2024.

Data availability

The data that support the findings of the present study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Funding

This research was supported by grants from Breakthrough T1D (formerly JDRF International) (3-SRA-2022-1201-S-B 1 and 3-SRA-2022-1201-S-B 2); the National Institutes of Health – Human Islet Research Network Consortium on Beta Cell Death & Survival from Pancreatic β-Cell Gene Networks to Therapy (HIRN-CBDS) (grant U01 DK127786); and the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) (grants RO1DK126444 and RO1DK133881-01).

Authors’ relationships and activities

The authors declare that there are no relationships or activities that might bias, or be perceived to bias, their work.

Contribution statement

JMC-J was involved in the conceptualisation of the study, experimental design, data collection and analysis and drafted the manuscript. ACdB, AEM, PLZ, EM-V and JGO carried out the experimental work and revised the manuscript. JC, VF and MK designed and implemented the training protocol, including participant recruitment, screening, randomisation, conducting maximal incremental tests, monitoring training sessions and coordinating blood sampling; they also revised the manuscript. MC and DLE contributed to developing the original research idea, oversaw the design and experimental work and participated in the interpretation of the results. DLE took responsibility for manuscript writing and revision. MC revised the manuscript. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript. JMC-J serves as the guarantor of this work, ensuring full access to all study data and taking responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the analyses.