Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of resistance training (RT) on body composition, systolic and diastolic blood pressures (BP), and activity of muscle MMP-2 in the left ventricle of high-fat fed rats.
Materials/methods: We have evaluated 32 male Wistar rats divided into four experimental groups (n=8/each) according to diet and exercise status: sedentary (SED; standard diet), sedentary obese (SED-OB; diet: 30% of fat), RT (RT; standard diet) and RT obese (RT-OB; diet: 30% of fat). After weaning (day 21), animals were subjected to the experimental diet according to their groups during 24 weeks. A 12-week strength-training period was used, during which the rats climbed a 1.1-m vertical ladder with weights attached to their tails. Sessions were performed three times/week (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays), with 4-9 climbs/session and 8-12 dynamic movements/climb.
Results: RT induced higher muscle MMP-2 activity in the left ventricle in RT and RT-OB groups. Moreover, this study demonstrated that RT promoted lower body and fat masses, fat percentage, systolic and diastolic BPs and higher fat free mass in both trained groups.
Conclusion: RT increased muscle MMP-2 activity in the left ventricle, induced positive changes on body composition and lowered BPs in high-fat diet fed rats, suggesting that it may be a useful tool to prevent alterations induced by high-fat diet consumption.
Keywords: BP; Blood pressure; CL; CV; Cardiovascular risk; Carrying load; ECM; Extracellular matrix; HM:BM; Heart mass to body mass ratio; LV:BM; LV:FFM; Left ventricle; Left ventricle mass to body mass ratio; Left ventricle mass to fat free mass; MMP-2; MMPs; Matrix metallopeptidase; Metalloproteinase-2; Metalloproteinases; Obesity; RT; RT-OB; Resistance training; Resistance training group; Resistance training obese group; SED; SED-OB; Sedentary group; Sedentary obese group; TNF-α; Tumour necrosis factor-alfa.
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