Changes in Lipid Profiles, Insulin Resistance and Serum Fibroblast Growth Factor 21 Following Three Types of Exercise Training in Obese Children

Abstract

Aims Obesity and immobility predispose to cardiovascular disease. Today, changing childhood lifestyle may affect cardiovascular disease factors. This research aimed to determine the effect of three types of exercise training, including endurance exercise, resistance exercise, and combined exercise, on lipid profiles, insulin resistance, and serum FGF21 in obese children.Materials & Methods This experimental study was conducted on a total of 8-12 years old male students of elementary schools in Yasuj, Iran (N=18038) in October 2006. Sixty obese students, by the simple and voluntarily sampling method, were randomly allocated four groups ( 15individuals): Resistance exercise, endurance exercise, and combined exercise, and control. Blood sampling was taken 24 hours before the start of the training period and 48 hours after the end latest session of the training period at the Laboratory of Shahid Beheshti Hospital in Yasuj, and the factors such as Glucose, TC, TG, LDL, VLDL, HDL, VO2max, HOMA-Insulin Resistance, and Serum FGF-21 were measured. Data were analyzed by SPSS 21 software using the ANCOVA test. Findings Their BMI and VO2max were 32.362.31kg/m2 and 23.061.72 lit/kg/min, respectively, which showed that subjects were non-active (sedentary) obese in pre-training. Results showed that eight weeks of EE, RE, and CE had a significant effect on increasing serum HDL (F=3.04; p<0.001) and on decreasing of glucose (F=2.98; p<0.001), TC (F=4.33; p<0.001), TG (F=5.44; p<0.001), LDL (F=4.86; p<0.001), VLDL (F=5.58; p<0.001). There was a significant difference between the training intervention groups in pre-training and posttraining in the HOMA-Insulin Resistance variable (F=3.28; p<0.001), which had decreased, and serum FGF-21 (F=2.45; p<0.001) which had increased. Also, results illustrated that the EE method was better than RE and CE in improving these variables. Conclusion Applied training methods in this study, especially endurance exercise, can be considered suitable interventions to reduce cardiovascular risk factors related to obesity in childhood.