Comparing the Effect of Endurance Exercise and High-Intensity Interval Exercise on Plasma Levels of Chemerin and Insulin Resistance in Obese Male Rats

 Exercise improves sensitivity to insulin by reducing some adipokines including chemerin. However, the effect of endurance exercise and high-intensity intermittent exercise on chemerin level and insulin resistance in obese male rats is still unknown.

In this study 27 male rats were randomly divided into 4 groups of sedentary control (n=6), endurance exercise (n=8), high-intensity intermittent exercise (n=8) and untreated obese control (n=5). Both endurance and high intensity intermittent exercise groups performed exercises for 8 weeks. The plasma level of chemerin was measured by ELISA method.

This study obtained its ethical approval form the Research Ethics Committee of Sport Sciences Research Institute (Code: IR.SSRI.REC.1398.55).

The chemerin level was significantly reduced in the endurance group compared to the untreated obese control group (P<0.01), but it had no significant change compared to the sedentary control group. Moreover, the plasma level of chemerin in the high-intensity intermittent group was not significantly different from that of untreated obese control group and sedentary control group (P>0.05) and chemerin level reduction in the endurance group was significant compared to the high-intensity intermittent group (P<0.05). Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the insulin resistance reported in high-intensity intermittent group compared to that of endurance group (P>0.05), but its difference in high-intensity intermittent and endurance training groups was significant compared to that of untreated obese control and sedentary control groups (P<0.05).

Both endurance and high-intensity intermittent exercises can reduce insulin resistance which can be due to the reduction of chemerin plasma level and weight loss.