EVALUATION OF THE EFFECT OF DATE POLLEN EXTRACT AND RESISTANCE TRAINING ON THE REGULATION OF LEPTIN AND IGF-1 LEVELS IN THE VISCERAL ADIPOSE TISSUE OF MALE RATS

Besides a source of energy storage, adipose tissue acts as an endogenous tissue and plays an important role in maintaining the balance of the body's metabolism through secreting specific hormones and cytokines. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of date palm pollen extract and resistance training on adipose tissue metabolism and expression of secretory factors in male rats.

This experimental study was conducted on control and test groups. Thirty male Sprago-Dawley rats were divided into 6 groups of: control, resistance training, date pollen extract treatment, testosterone treatment, date pollen extract treatment + resistance training, testosterone treatment + resistance training. Date pollen extract was prepared and fed to rats at a dose of 100 mg/kg for four weeks. Testosterone enanthate at a dose of 2 mg/kg was injected into the target groups every day. The resistance training protocol, including ladder climbing with weights equivalent to 65% of the body weight of rats was performed for four weeks. Histopathological assessments were performed by H&E staining and the expression levels of leptin and IGF-1 genes were evaluated by real-time PCR. The resulting data were statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA and Tukey's tests at a significance of p<0.05.

The results showed that taking date pollen extract and doing resistance exercises at the same time caused a significant decrease in leptin gene expression (p<0.05). Also, treatment with testosterone + resistance training led to a significant decrease in the expression of IGF-1 (p<0.05) and leptin (p<0.05) genes.

It could be concluded that resistance training combined with treatment with date pollen extract may be effective in the reduction of IGF-1 and Leptin gene expression as well as decrease in the number of adipocytes in the adipose tissue.