Adaptation of Irisin, Follistatin and Myostatin to 8 weeks of Resistance, Endurance and Concurrent Training in Obese Men

Skeletal muscle is the largest tissue that modulates metabolic homeostasis with metabolic cross-talk caused by various myokines. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of 8 weeks of resistance, Endurance, and concurrent training on the levels of Myostatin, Follistatin, Irisin, and insulin resistance in obese men. 40 sedentary, obese men (BMI≥30) were randomly divided into 4 groups: resisting, endurance, concurrent training and control. The training groups performed special exercises for 8 weeks and three sessions a week. Serum levels of myostatin, Follistatin, and erosion were measured by ELISA method. There was a significant difference between the study groups after 8 weeks of training, myostatin (P = 0.041, F = 3.048), follistatin (P = 0.003, F = 5.661) and irisin (P = 0.002, F= 6.261). Results of the LSD post hoc test showed that resistance training significantly decreased myostatin compared to control group (P = 0.006).However, resistance training (P = 0.006) and aerobic training (P = 0.001) significantly increased folistatin compared to the control group. Also, resistance (P = 0.031), aerobic (P = 0.003) and Concurrent training (P = 0.001) significantly increased irisin compared to the control group. It seems that factors involved in muscle atrophy such as Mayostatin, which are under the influence of resistance training, are less effective in controlling the metabolic degradation of insulin resistance. However, factors involved in muscle hypertrophy such as follistatin and irisin, which affected by both aerobic and resistance exercise training, have better control over obesity-related degradation.