Aerobic Exercise and Calorie Restriction Alter Mitochondrial Biogenesis and Dynamics in Male Wistar Rats with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease

Abstract

Background: Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is one of the most common liver diseases. limited studies has been done on the effects of calorie restriction (CR) and aerobic exercise (AE) on mitochondrial biogenesis (PGC1α, NRF2) and dynamics (MFN2, DRP1) in NAFLD rats. In this present, the changes on PGC1α, NRF2, MFN2 and DRP1 Proteins expression after 12 weeks of CR and AE intervention in the NAFLD rat model were evaluated. Methods: 40 rats were used, with 32 of them being induced to develop NAFLD through an 8-week high-fat diet. These rats were then divided into five groups: control (ate fatty food), sham (ate normal food), CR, AE, and CA (CR & AE). The CA and CR groups received 60% of their daily diet, while the AE and CA groups participated in treadmill aerobic exercise sessions five times a week for 12 weeks. After the intervention period, protein expression levels were measured in all groups. Data analysis utilized one-way ANOVA with a significance level set at P<0.05. Results: As shown by the findings, there are significant differences in the expression of proteins between the groups. In PGC1α, NRF2, MFN2 proteins, CA group showed higher protein expression than CR group (respectively P=0.045, P=0.028, P=0.025). However, it presented a significant reduction in DRP1 protein. (P=0.015), and there was no significant difference between CA and AE in expression of PGC1α, NRf2, MFN2 and DRP1 proteins (P=0.995, P=0.44, P=0.635, P=0.076). Conclusion: The results showed that AE combined with CR is able to improve NAFLD.