The Effects of Different Treadmill Exercises on Serum-and Liver-Hepcidin and its Modulators in Rats / 中国运动医学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To compare the different effects of endurance and exhaustive exercises on hepcidin in the blood and liver,and determine the changes of related indexes about iron metabolism and hypoxia response,and of inflammatory and antimicrobial activity factors.Methods Thiry female Sprague Dawley rats were randomly divided into a control group (n=10),an endurance exercise group (n=10) and an exhaustive exercise group (n=10).Then 4 weeks of endurance and exhaustive treadmill training were given to different exercise groups respectively.Blood samples were collected,the routine indexes of the whole blood,and the serum indexes about iron metabolism,hypoxia response,inflammatory and antimicrobial activity factors were measured.Meanwhile,liver samples were fixed,embedded and sliced,and the expression of hepcidin,hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α and nuclear factor of kappa b (NF-κB) of different groups were measured using the immunochemistry staining.Results Compared with the control group,after 4-week endurance exercises,there was significant increase in the concentration of erythropoietin (EPO),but significant differences in the level of serum hepcidin and interleukin 6 (IL-6).However,after 4 weeks of exhaustive exercise,significant increase was observed in the level of hepcidin and the expression of HIF-1α in the serum and liver,as well as the serum interleukin 1 (IL-1),IL-6,tumor necrosis factor-α and C reactive protein,but significant decrease was found in the concentration of serum EPO and the level of serum TF and sTFR compared to the control group.Moreover,there was significant increase in the level of toll-like receptor 4 and NF-κB,which is correlated with the antimicrobial peptide activity of hepcidin compared between the exhaustive and control group.Conclusions Four-week endurance exercise down-regulates the level of serum hepcidin,while 4-week exhaustive exercise increases the hepcidin level in the serum and liver significantly.Therefore,different exercises can result in totally different effect on the hepcidin level.