ABSTRACT
The effect of an acute exercise session on high density lipoprotein-cholesterol (HDL-C) and the subfractions HDL2-C and HDL3-C was determined for 9 healthy females (VO2max = 46.62 +/- 4.82 ml X kg-1 min-1). Each subject underwent a continuous 40-min run on a treadmill at a workload corresponding to 70% of VO2max. A venous blood sample was obtained immediately prior to exercise and 5 min, 24, 48 and 96 h after the exercise. Pre-exercise values were: HDL-C (61.7 +/- 3.7 mg X dl-1); HDL2-C (22.4 +/- 2.1 mg X dl-1); HDL3-C (39.3 +/- 2.0 mg X dl-1). At 5 min after exercise, HDL-C (66.2 +/- 4.4 mg X dl-1) and HDL3-C (44.5 +/- 2.8 mg X dl-1) were significantly elevated (P less than 0.01) when compared to pre-exercise values. HDL-C and HDL3-C were not significantly different from pre-exercise at the remaining time points. In comparison with pre-exercise, HDL2-C showed no significant change at any of the post-exercise time points. Results indicated that the rise in HDL-C following acute exercise was due to an increase in the subfraction HDL3-C. The change in total HDL-C and HDL3-C was transient in that pre-exercise values were re-attained within 24 h following acute submaximal exercise.
