Swim training applied at early age is critical to adrenal medulla catecholamine content and to attenuate monosodium l-glutamate-obesity onset in mice

Abstract

Exercise has been recommended as a remedy against a worldwide obesity epidemic; however, the onset of excessive weight gain is not fully understood, nor are the effects of exercise on body weight control. Activity deficits of the sympathetic nervous system, including the sympathoadrenal axis, have been suggested to contribute to high fat accumulation in obesity. In the present work, swim training was used to observe fat accumulation and adrenal catecholamine stocks in hypothalamic-obese mice produced by neonatal treatment with monosodium l-glutamate (MSG). MSG-treated and normal mice swam for 15 min/day, 3 days a week, from weaning up to 90 days old (EXE 21–90); from weaning up to 50 days old (EXE 21–50) and from 60 up to 90 days old (EXE 60–90). Sedentary MSG and normal mice (SED groups) did not exercise at all. Animals were sacrificed at 90 days of age. MSG treatment induced obesity, demonstrated by a 43.08% increase in epididymal fat pad weight; these adult obese mice presented 27.7% less catecholamine stocks in their adrenal glands than untreated mice ( p < 0.001). Exercise reduced fat accumulation and increased adrenal catecholamine content in EXE 21–90 groups. These effects were more pronounced in MSG-mice than in normal ones. Halting the exercise (EXE 21–50 groups) still changed fat accretion and catecholamine stocks; however, no effects were recorded in the EXE 60–90 groups. We conclude that metabolic changes imposed by early exercise, leading to an attenuation of MSG-hypothalamic obesity onset, are at least in part due to sympathoadrenal activity modulation.