The Effect of Endurance Training and High-Fat Diet on PGC-1a/FNDC5/Irisin Pathway in Male C57BL/6 Mice

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of endurance training and high fat diet on PGC-1a/FNDC5/Irisin pathway in Gastrocnemius muscle and visceral adipose tissue in male C57BL/6 mice. Male C57BL/6 mice were divided to 4 groups: High fat-Exercise (HF-E), High fat-Sedentary (HF-S), Low fat-Exercise (LF-E) and Low fat-Sedentary (LF-S). Exercise groups received exercise on a motor-driven treadmill at 21m/min, 45 min/day, 5 days/week for 8 weeks. 24 hours after final exercise session, mice were sacrificed and blood samples were taken from the mice to measure plasma irisin. Gastrocnemius skeletal muscle and visceral adipose tissue were excised and frozen in liquid nitrogen for assessment of PGC-1a and FNDC5 mRNA levels. Data was analyzed by a two-way ANOVA at P0.05). The results of this study indicate that high fat diet increases the expression of FNDC5 in the Gastrocnemius muscle tissue. Also, there is a potential correlation between the expression of muscular FNDC5 and body fat mass, which requires further studies to investigate its cellular and molecular mechanisms.