Effect of eight weeks of continuous and high intensity interval training on UCP1 in visceral and subcutaneous white adipose tissue of obese rats

Prevalence of obesity and its related disease is considered as a major health complication worldwide. Changing the phenotype of white adipose tissue to brown following exercise is currently being studied as one of the strategies to prevent obesity. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of eight weeks of continuous and high intensity interval training (HIIT) on UCP1 of visceral and subcutaneous white adipose tissue in obese rats. Eighteen obese rats after eight weeks of high fat diet randomly divided into control, continuous training (CT) and HIIT groups. HIIT protocol included high intensity intervals (80-110 % vVO2max) and low intensity intervals (50 % vVO2max) and CT protocol included running with (65-75 % vVO2max) intensity. 48 hours after the last training session, rats were sacrificed, visceral and subcutaneous white adipose tissue were removed and UCP1 level was assessed through western blotting method. The results showed that eight weeks of CT and HIIT increase UCP1 in visceral and subcutaneous WAT (p<0.05), and this increase were higher in HIIT group regardless of visceral or subcutaneous adipose tissue (P<0.005). It seems that HIIT induce higher increase in UCP1 protein in visceral and subcutaneous white adipose tissue, so obese individuals can use this type of training to benefit obesity prevention affects and improvement of adipose tissue function.