Effects of aerobic training on soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) and lipid profile in overweight olderly women

Occurrences of cardiovascular diseases are usually predicted via lipid profile measuring, however, cardiovascular diseases are also observed in people with natural lipid profile. Hence, the investigators try to find more sensitive inflammatory markers such as soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1). Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of 8 week aerobic training on sICAM-1 and lipid profile in Iranian overweight olderly women.

In this semiexperimental study, 40 overweight olderly women (72±7 years) who had no regular physical activity were non-randoinly selected as the subjects, randomly divided into experimental (n = 20) and control groups (n = 20). Fasting blood samples were taken before and after 8 weeks of aerobic training. Aerobic training was performed at an intensity corresponding to 60% of the subject's maximal heart rate for 3 d/wk and for 8 weeks. Kolmogrov Smirnov test was shown normal distribution of data, so paired t test was used to determine the differences between before and after training data in each group, and independent t-test was used to compare data in training and control groups. Statistical significance was set at P < 0.05.

LDL-C, TC, TG, sICAM-1 levels and BMI significantly decreased and HDL C increased non-significantly in the experimental group after 8 weeks of aerobic training. There was no significant changes observed between the groups in HDL-C and TC, but LDL-C, TG, sICAM-1 and BMI changed significantly.

Aerobic training may be having an important role in the prevention and control of cardiovascular diseases in olderly women by decreasing sICAM-1, LDL-C, TG and TC. Also, due to this fact that sICAM-1 is more sensitive than lipid profile, it is reasonable to measure it in accurate evaluation for incidence of cardiovascular diseases.