Effect of Aerobic Training on Serum Visfatin and Some Risk Indices of Metabolic Syndrome in Obese Men

Recent studies indicate that visfatin is a newly identified adipocytokine, which increases with obesity and may have potential proinflammatory effects. Since, the relationship between serum visfatin level with metabolic syndrome and aerobic training has not been clearly established. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of an aerobic training on serum visfatin levels and some risk indices of metabolic syndrome in obese men.Twenty obese males volunteered and were divided randomly into the experimental (n=10) and control (n=10) groups. Aerobic training protocol consisted of 3 sessions per week for 10 weeks. Each training session consisted of one slow running trial with an intensity of 65 to 75 percent of maximal heart rate for a period of 10 minutes. In order to follow the principle of overload, halfa- minute was added to each session, so that, at the last session the running time reached to 25 minutes. Before and after the training period, blood sampling was performed. Data were analyzed using independent t-test. Results showed significant reduction of serum visfatin level, and no signifi- cant difference in insulin resistance index, serum LDL, TC and TG between the control and experimental groups. In addition, aerobic training reduced significantly body mass index, body weight, waist to hip ratio, body fat percent, and increased significantly HDL and maximum oxygen uptake. It can be said that 10 weeks of aerobic training can cause significant reduction of serum visfatin, but these reduction is not associated with improved indicators of metabolic syndrome as insulin resistance and lipid profile