Tehran University Medical Journal

Background: Studies indicate that obestatin, an anti-hunger peptide, plays an important role in energy balance, GH secretion, and body weight. It has been physiologically shown that obestatin apposes the function of Ghrelin. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of a single session of aerobic exercise in trained women (a 1.5-mile run) on the expression of obestatin gene found in lymphocytes.

Methods: 16 trained female participants (4±1 years of training experience) were voluntarily selected from Khorasan province in Iran and were randomly divided into two groups: the control and aerobic exercise groups. The participants in the aerobic group were asked to run for 1.5 miles with a fixed speed (70 VO2 max) while the controls were passively present in the exercise environment. Following an overnight fast, blood samples (10 ml from the antecubital vein) were collected before and immediately after the exercise from all the participants. Obestatin expression was investigated after separating the lymphocytes by centrifuge and using semi-quantitative RT-PCR.

Results: There was a rise in obestatin gene expression in the case group after one session of aerobic training versus the control group but the changes were not statistically significant.

Conclusion: The results indicated that a single aerobic exercise could not significantly increase the expression of obestatin. Perhaps the type, duration and intensity of the applied protocol in this study did not have a cumulative effect on this gene although these results are in harmony with the results of other studies in this regard.