Effect of endurance exercise on plasma homocysteine and lipids in rats

Homocysteine is a homologue of the amino acid cysteine differentiated by an additional methylene, consists of sulfur and biosynthesized from methionine via a multi-step process. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of endurance exercise on plasma homocysteine and lipid profile in rats. Twenty Wistar rats age 16 weeks (20 ±230 g) were obtained from Pasteur Institute of Iran. The rats were divided into test and control groups. The training protocol was consisted of running on treadmill 1h/day, 5 days per week/wk for a period of 10 weeks. The intensity of exercise was 28 meter in minute (about 70 to 75 VO2 max). At the end of the experiment, (food withheld overnight). Twenty four hours after the last training period, blood sample were collected and biochemical parameters were analyzed. The significance of differences between biochemical parameters in groups was measured by one-way analysis of Variance. The relationship between tHcy and lipid profile was investigated by Pearson correlation.The results showed that, tHcy decreased compared to control however, it was not significant. The HDL-C and TG changed significantly (P<0.05). The LDL-C and TC differ among groups however it was not significant. There was no significant relation between tHcy with selected lipid and lipoprotein profile. Lack of correlation with lipid and lipoprotein variables was likely due to presence of independent risk factors in formation and development of cardiovascular disease.