Comparison of Eight Weeks of Continuous and High Intensity Interval Swimming on Irisin Tissue Levels and Insulin Sensitivity in Male Rats with Metabolic Syndrome

The aim of the present study was to investigated the comparison effects of eight weeks of continuous and high intensity interval swimming on irisin tissue levels and insulin sensitivity in male rats with metabolic syndrome.

48 male Wistar rats with six weeks of age and a weight range of 150-180 gr were randomly divided into four groups of eight including: standard control, metabolic syndrome control, moderate continuous swimming+metabolic syndrome (CT+MetS) and high-intensity interval swimming+metabolic syndrome (HIIT+MetS). The training was carriedout for eight weeks and five days a week, equivalent to 65 and almost 100 percent of the maximum oxygen consumption, respectively, for the program of CT and HIIT swimming. Measurement of blood and tissue variables (visceral fat and liver) was done by ELISA method and statistical analysis was done using one-way analysis of variance and at a significance level of p<0.05.

The results showed that CT and HIIT swimming after induction of metabolic syndrome increased level of irisin in the liver tissue and visceral fat of rats (p=0.002 and p=0.0001, respectively); so the changes were higher after HIIT. The glucose levels in the CT and HIIT swimming group were significantly lower than the standard and the metabolic syndrome control (p=0.0001) groups. No significant difference was observed in the insulin sensitivity (p=0.67) between the training groups and the metabolic syndrome control group.

It is possible that moderate and high intensity intermittent swimming induce protective effects on metabolic syndrome by increasing irisin and reducing blood glucose.