Long-term effects of moderate physical exercise during early childhood on insulin sensitivity in rats during adulthood

Abstract

It is of great importance to investigate the effects of physical exercise for metabolic health when performed in early life, and what the adulthood response would be. The aim of this study is to analyse the effects of moderate intensity physical exercise protocol during childhood on the adipose tissue and insulin sensitivity of rats during adulthood. Twenty weaned Wistar (28 days old) were divided into control and trained groups. The Control Group was kept sedentary, and the Trained group was submitted to swimming exercise at 80% of the anaerobic threshold (determined by the lactate minimum test) for 1 hour/day, 5 days/week from 28 to 90 days of age. At the end of the experiment, the body weight, adiposity (adipose tissue weight), insulin sensitivity, glycemia, insulinemia, pancreatic insulin, lipogenic activity in mesenteric fat, lipogenic activity and glycogen store in gastrocnemius and glucose uptake by soleus were analyzed. Trained group showed lower body weight gain, fat acumulation, lipid synthesis, glycemia, insulinemia and pancreatic insulin level. Kitt, HOMA-IR, glycogen store in gastrocnemius and glucose uptake by soleus were higher in this group. Therefore, we conclude that the moderate physical exercise performed during childhood can contribute to the reduction of body fat and insulin resistance during adulthood in Wistar rats.