The Effect of an Acute Aerobic Bout on Time Course Alterations of Visceral Adipose Tissue Gene Expression in Diabetic Rats

Document Type : Original Article

Abstract

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic disorders that are characterized by a decline in 
insulin secretion, insulin malfunction or both. Visfatin is a recently discovered protein that is expressed and 
secreted in visceral fat tissue. Elevated plasma visfatin levels have been reported in humans with type 2 
diabetes mellitus. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of a single bout of aerobic exercise on 
visceral adipose tissue visfatin gene expression in a diabetic rat model. 
Material and Methods: Diabetes was induced by streptozotocin (50 mg/kg) injection in a single dose
administered to twenty male Wistar rats (6 – 8 weeks old, 165 ±5 grams weight). The rats were randomly 
divided into four groups, each comprising five rats; one control group and three exercise groups. The acute 
aerobic exercise bout required the three exercise groups to complete a single session of running for 50 minutes 
on a treadmill at a velocity of20m.min-1. Following the treadmill run, one of the exercise groups were
anesthetized immediately after the exercise, the second one 4h -after exercise and the last group were 
anesthetized 24h post exercise. Tissue samples were collected immediately after the animals were anesthetized. 
To determine the relative levels of gene expression, semi-quantitative RT-PCR was performed. 
Results: The results showed a significant increase in the expression of visfatin in the 4h and 24h post 
exercise groups compared with the control group (P<0.05). 
Discussion and Conclusion: In summary, exercise can improve the visceral fat tissue levels of visfatin 
mRNA expression. The increase in the visceral fat tissue visfatin mRNA suggests that visfatin in visceral fat 
tissue could possibly play an important role in glucose metabolism and act as a paracrine messenger.

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