Effects of progressive aerobic training on the levels of apelin and inflammation markers in obese women

Aerobic endurance training is the most efficient type of physical training. It indicate beneficial effects on obese subjects because of decreasing chronic inflammation. Apelin plays a key role in energy metabolism adjustment. Therefore it is important to study the levels of blood apelin in obese people. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of 12 weeks of progressive aerobic training on the level of apelin, TNF-α, IL-6 and CRP in obese inactive women. In this semi-experimental study, 30 obese inactive women (mean age 37.19±1.75 yr, body mass index 35.01±2.42 kg/m2) with no regular physical training were selected. They were randomly divided into two groups (N=15) including training and control groups. The individuals in the training group performed a progressive aerobic training protocol including running 3 days a week during period of 12 weeks up to the 60 to 80 percent of maximum heart rate. The average of exercise duration in every session was approximately 60 minutes. Fasting blood samples were taken before and after protocol. The concentrations of biochemical markers in plasma and serum were measured by commercial ELISA kits. To extraction of results the two-way ANOVA 2×2 test was applied and the significance level was considered as p≤0.05. Two-way ANOVA was demonstrated the significant decreases in levels of apelin (p<0.001), TNF-α (p<0.001), IL-6 (p<0.001) and CRP (p<0.001) after progressive aerobic training. Progressive aerobic training is related to reduction of fat tissue and cytokines production and consequently decreases in apelin levels. The apelin reduction can be considered as a well-known mechanism to decrease inflammation in obese inactive women.