Masoumeh Azizi
Background: Ghrelin is a peptide hormone secreted from the endocrine cells of stomach, affecting feeding behavior, appetite, energy consumption, weight, and body composition which may thus be an essential hormone for maintaining energy hemostasis. Leptin, an antagonist to ghrelin, is another hormone which also plays a key role in metabolism. Much evidence indicates that aerobic exercise training is a key component of exercise recommendations for weight control. Yet, results on the impact of this exercise on ghrelin and Leptin levels are controversial, and are from studies performed among athletes.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine of the effect of 8 weeks aerobic training on Serum leptin and ghrelin changes-induced aerobic training in healthy young females.
Material and Method: 24 inactive female students, with a mean age of 27.56±0.48 yrs, height 162.66± 5.05 cm, and a body mass index of 32.68±0.84 kg/m2 participated in the study in two trials [control-(n=12) and exercise-(n=12)] in a counterbalanced, randomized design. Serum levels of leptin and ghrelin via Blood samples were taken 48 h before starting the aerobic training program. Then, experimental group performed the aerobic training program included aerobic training with 65-85% of individual maximum heart rate for 3 session per week, 60 minute per session and 8 consecutive weeks. Differences between post test and pre test were evaluated using a Student′s t-test for paired samples. A P-value < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant.
Results: Student′s t-test revealed a significant differences in levels of plasma total ghrelin (P=0.08) and a significant decrease also in plasma levels of leptin in the experimental group when compared to the control group.
Conclusion: Our study showed that regular and light aerobic exercise could decrease leptin levels and increase ghrelin concentration of healthy females. But further studies should be done to evaluate the effect of different modes, intensities and durations of exercise training on ghrelin and leptin and their association with post-exercise hunger, meal initiation and food intake.
