Effects of zinc supplement on hematological parameters following six-week endurance exercise in male rats

Abstract

Introduction: The present study was aimed to investigate the effects of zinc supplement on hematological parameters following 6 weeks of endurance training in male rats. Materials and Methods: A total of 40 adult male Wistar rats (weighing 185 ± 20 g) were randomly divided into four groups: Saline control (receiving saline, without exercise), exercise control, and two intervention groups receiving conventional Zn (1 mg/kg, i.p.) daily (5 days per week) for 6 weeks with and without exercise. 30 min after injection of each exercise session, exercise groups performed the daily exercise protocol. Finally, the hematological parameters were evaluated by complete blood count test.The collected data were analyzed with SPSS using analysis of variance and Tukey post hoc tests and the significance level was set at P ≤ 0.05 for all tests. Results: The results showed zinc supplement caused significant increase red blood cells (RBCs), hemoglobin (Hb), and hematocrit (HCT) compared with the control and exercise groups. In addition, zinc supplement with exercise showed significant difference with the exercise alone group. Moreover, exercise significantly decreased the mean RBCs, Hb, and HCT compared with the control. Other hematological parameters (white blood cell, platelet, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin [MCH], and MCH concentration) were not significantly different between the groups. Conclusion: Findings of this study showed that supplementation of zinc following aerobic exercise may improve some of the hematological parameters of blood.