Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under (CC BY-NC) license
Authors
Exercise physiology, physical education,university of Guilan
Abstract
Background: Oxidative stress is increased in nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), leading to impaired mitochondrial biogenesis and dynamics. This study aimed to investigate the effects of calorie restriction (CR) and aerobic exercise (AE) on mitochondrial biogenesis (PGC1α and NRF2) and mitochondrial dynamics (MFN2 and DRP1) in rats with NAFLD.Methods: Forty rats were used in this study, of which 32 developed NAFLD after being fed a high-fat diet for 8 weeks and 8 rats consumed a normal diet.. The rats were divided into five groups: control (high-fat diet), sham (standard diet), CR, AE, and CA (CR plus AE). The CR and CA groups received 60% of their regular food intake, whereas the AE and CA groups performed treadmill aerobic exercise five times per week for 12 weeks. After the intervention, protein expression was measured in all groups. Data were analyzed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and statistical significance was set at P<0.05.Results: Significant differences in protein expression were observed among the groups. The expression of PGC1α, NRF2, and MFN2 was significantly higher in the CA group than in the CR group (P=0.045, P=0.028, and P=0.025, respectively). However, DRP1 expression was significantly decreased (P=0.015). No significant differences were found between the CA and AE groups in the expression of PGC1α, NRF2, MFN2, and DRP1 (P=0.995, P=0.44, P=0.635, and P=0.076, respectively).Conclusion: Our findings showed that AE combined with CR improved the expression of proteins involved in mitochondrial biogenesis and dynamics, thereby establishing mitochondrial quality balance and contributing to the improvement of NAFLD.
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