Evaluation of Some Lipid and Hematological Parameters of Blood Plasma in Ovariectomized Rats after Eight Weeks of Aerobic Exercise

Due to the physiological changes caused by estrogen deficiency in menopause and due to the importance of aerobic exercise as one of the non-pharmacological strategies to improve these changes, the present study was performed to evaluate the effect of moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on lipid profile and the number of some plasma blood cells after ovariectomy.

This experimental study was performed on 40 female rats that were divided into two equal groups and one group underwent ovariectomy. After two weeks of recovery, the rats were randomly divided into four groups: control-healthy, control-ovariectomy, exercise-healthy and exercise-ovariectomy. The rats exercised for 25 weeks with 25 meter per minute intensity and blood samples were taken 48 hours after the last training session.

Ovary removal in the control-ovariectomy group increased body weight (240.20±11.37) compared to the healthy-control group (198.36±6.79) (p≤0.01), increased triglyceride (82.33±12.38) compared to control-healthy (36.83±3.55) (p≤0.01), increased total cholesterol (130.66±3.82) compared to healthy-control (95.5±1.33) (p≤0.0001) and increased monocytes (3.73±0.58) compared to the control-healthy (0.233±0.06) (p≤0.0001). Ovariectomy caused an increase in white blood cells in the control-ovariectomy group (6.33±1.39) compared to the healthy-exercise group (3.68±0.74) (p≤0.05). Total cholesterol levels decreased in exercise-ovariectomy (108±3.53) compared to control-ovariectomy (130.66±3.82) (p≤0.001). Eight weeks of aerobic exercise reduced monocytes in the exercise-ovariectomy group (0.268±0.03) compared to the control-ovariectomy group (3.73±0.58) (p≤0.001).

The results of the study showed that ovariectomy increased inflammation due to an increase in white blood cells, monocytes and platelets, and aerobic exercise was able to partially compensate for these changes in lipid and hematological parameters resulting from ovary removal. It seems that aerobic exercise can improve the effects of ovariectomy on white blood cells and platelets after adaptation, which has a significant positive effect on body weight and lipid profile.