The effect of 12 weeks of aerobic training with folic acid supplementation on ghrelin hormone, the amount of food intake and weight changes in female wistar rats

data from existing prevalence studies estimate that 1-78% of female athletes suffer from disordered eating .but reported folic acid can increase appetite. On the other hand ghrelin is been introduced as a a strong stimulant for appetite. to clarify the role of physical exercise and folic acid on acylated ghrelin and food intake, we examined the effect 12 weeks of aerobic training with folic acid supplementation on ghrelin hormone , the amount of food intake and weight changes in Female Wistar rats.
24 rats randomly divided into three groups (each group 8 rats) of control , training and training with folic acid supplementation. the training protocol consisted of aerobic exercise running on a treadmill for 12 weeks( 5 days a week). standard meal and water were freely provided for the subjects and in the supplement group 10 mg dissolved folic acid per liter of water were consumed and their consumed meal and weight were measured and recorder every weeks. 24 hours after the last session of training and 8 hours of overnight fasting, blood and tissue samples were collected and hormones levels were measured using eliza method. to analyze the data, one way ANOVA and tukey post hoc test was used.
The results showed that 12 weeks of aerobic training with folic acid suplementation, significantiy reduce serum acylated ghrelin levels(P0/05). in addition 12 weeks of aerobic training with folic acid suplementation, compared with other groups, significantly increased body weight and food consumption in rats (P According to the decreased serum acylated ghrelin and no change in the stomach acylated ghrelin with increased food intake and body weight in rats, it seems that taking folic acid supplements in athletes,with another strong mechanism, Influence on appetite center and increase food intake.