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Published on: March 11, 2017
The effects of swimming exercise on high-fat-diet-induced steatohepatitis
1Physical Education College, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei Province, China frankfu@hkbu.edu.hk.
Aim:
The aim of this study was to assess the effects of swimming exercise on high-fat (HF) diet-induced steatohepatitis.
Methods:
Two groups of rats were fed a HF diet (35%; kcal) for 12 weeks, with one group remained sedentary (HF-Sed) and the other group swam (HF-Tr) during this entire period. A third group was fed a standard diet and remained sedentary for 12 weeks (SD-Sed). Swimming exercise (5 days/week) was initiated at the same time as the HF diet and was progressively increased, until it reached 90 min after 4 weeks.
Results:
At the end of the 12-week period, HF-Sed rats exhibited higher body weight (means +/- standard error [SE]: 492+/-40 vs 432+/-21 g; P<0.05), liver weight (16.21+/-2.23 vs 9.92+/-1.14 g; P<0.05), serum alanine aminotransferase (73.62+/-36.11 vs 27.16+/-4.62 U/L; P<0.05), aspartic aminotransferase (AST; 198.87+/-120.16 vs 120.16+/-19.09 U/L; P<0.05), nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA; 897.48+/-133.62 vs 437.5 micromol/L; P<0.05), triglyceride (0.92+/-0.1 vs 0.56+/-0.04 mmol/L; P<0.05), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-a (21.74+/-2.93 vs 16.57+/-3.53 pg/mL; P < 0.05) as well as liver malondialdehyde (MDA; 5.3+/-1.45 vs 3.48+/-0.94 nmol/mg protein; P<0.05) and NEFA (305.47+/-69.23 vs 204.56+/-64.26 micromol/mg protein; P<0.05) than SD-Sed rats. All HF-Sed rats developed moderate to severe hepatic steatosis and steatohepatitis according to liver histological findings. Compared with HF-Sed, HF-Tr rats' hepatopathological manifestations of steatosis and inflammation were much attenuated, and their serum and liver parameters were all lower with the exception of serum AST.
Conclusion:
It was concluded that swimming exercise might reduce the incidence of HF-diet-induced steatohepatitis.
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