Abstract
Obesity is characterized by the induction of skeletal muscle remodeling and mitochondria-mediated apoptosis. Exercise has been reported as a positive regulator of skeletal muscle remodeling and apoptosis. However, the effects of exercise on skeletal muscle remodeling and mitochondria-mediated apoptosis in obese skeletal muscles have not been clearly elucidated. Four-week-old C57BL/6 mice were randomly assigned into four groups: control (CON), control plus exercise (CON + EX), high-fat diet (HFD), and HFD plus exercise groups (HFD + EX). After obesity was induced by 20 weeks of 60% HFD feeding, treadmill exercise was performed for 12 weeks. Exercise ameliorated the obesity-induced increase in extramyocyte space and a decrease in the cross-sectional area of the skeletal muscle. In addition, it protected against increases in mitochondria-mediated apoptosis in obese skeletal muscles. These results suggest that exercise as a protective intervention plays an important role in regulating skeletal muscle structure and apoptosis in obese skeletal muscles.
Highlights
Obesity is rapidly emerging as one of the most important health problems of the 21st century.Overweight and obesity, which have affected approximately 1.3 billion persons in 2005, are expected to affect approximately 3.3 billion persons by 2030 [1]
After completing high-fat diet (HFD) feeding and aerobic exercise training, the skeletal muscle tissues were extracted from the respective groups, and skeletal muscle morphology and apoptosis were analyzed via hematoxylin and eosin staining (myocyte number, cross-sectional area (CSA), and extramyocyte space), Western immunoblotting (Bax, Bcl-2, and cytochrome c), immunohistochemistry (IHC; cleaved caspase-3), and terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick-end labeling (TUNEL) staining
After 20 weeks of HFD feeding, we observed the effects of 12 weeks of exercise training on the body weight of mice with induced obesity and found that the HFD + EX group had a decreased body weight compared with the HFD group (60.23 ± 0.45 g vs. 41.36 ± 0.68 g, p < 0.05)
Summary
Obesity is rapidly emerging as one of the most important health problems of the 21st century.Overweight and obesity, which have affected approximately 1.3 billion persons (approximately 33%of the world’s adult population) in 2005, are expected to affect approximately 3.3 billion persons (approximately 58% of the world’s adult population) by 2030 [1]. Obesity is rapidly emerging as one of the most important health problems of the 21st century. Overweight and obesity, which have affected approximately 1.3 billion persons Of the world’s adult population) in 2005, are expected to affect approximately 3.3 billion persons (approximately 58% of the world’s adult population) by 2030 [1]. Obesity results from diverse causes, including genetic factors, environmental factors, stress, and high-fat diet (HFD), and are associated with cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, sleep apnea, and cancer [2]. The skeletal muscle is the largest organ, accounting for approximately 40-50% of the total. Res. Public Health 2018, 15, 2301; doi:10.3390/ijerph15102301 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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