Priscilla Gois Basilio et al. Ana Priscila Cayres de Oliveira Ana Carolini Ferreira de Castro Marianna Rabelo de Carvalho … Alessandro Moura Zagatto Paula Felippe Martinez Marina Politi Okoshi Katashi Okoshi Gabriel Elias Ota Filipe Abdalla dos Reis Silvio Assis de Oliveira-Junior
Abstract
Background
The effects of non-pharmacological interventions such as calorie restriction and exercise training on health and prevention of cardiovascular diseases have been investigated in clinical and experimental studies.
Objective
To analyze the influence of intermittent fasting and exercise training on functional fitness, glycemia and cardiac remodeling.
Methods
Wistar rats (n=60) were randomly divided into four groups: control, exercise training (ET), intermittent fasting (IF) and exercise training plus intermittent fasting (ETI). Over 12 weeks, control and ET animals were fed daily a standard commercial diet ad libitum , while IF and ETI animals were fed every other day. In addition, the ET and ETI groups were submitted to a running protocol on a treadmill. After this period, functional fitness, nutritional parameters and blood glucose levels were analyzed. In addition to heart morphology, myocardial protein expression of extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK) was assessed by Western-blot. The results were analyzed using two-way ANOVA and Student-Newman-Keuls test. The level of significance considered was 5%.
Results
Exercise training increased functional fitness in the ET and ETI groups and promoted cardiac fibrosis. The combination of intermittent fasting and exercise training resulted in a smaller area under the blood glucose curve and reduced cardiomyocyte cross-sectional area and interstitial collagen fraction in the ETI group compared to ET. ERK and JNK expression levels were similar among groups (p>0.05).
Conclusions
Intermittent fasting is associated with improved glucose tolerance and attenuates cardiac remodeling induced by exercise training (Arq Bras Cardiol. 2020; 115(2):184-193)