Treadmill Intervention Attenuates the Cafeteria Diet-Induced Impairment of Stress-Coping Strategies in Young Adult Female Rats

Abstract

The current prevalence of diet-induced overweight and obesity in adolescents and adults is continuously growing. Although the detrimental biochemical and metabolic consequences of obesity are widely studied, its impact on stress-coping behavior and its interaction with specific exercise doses (in terms of intensity, duration and frequency) need further investigation. To this aim, we fed adolescent rats either an obesogenic diet (cafeteria diet, CAF) or standard chow (ST). Each group was subdivided into four subgroups according to the type of treadmill intervention as follows: a sedentary group receiving no manipulation; a control group exposed to a stationary treadmill; a low-intensity treadmill group trained at 12 m/min; and a higher intensity treadmill group trained at 17 m/min. Both the diet and treadmill interventions started at weaning and lasted for 8 weeks. Subjects were tested for anxiety-like behavior in the open field test and for coping strategies in the two-way active avoidance paradigm at week 7 and were sacrificed at week 8 for biometric and metabolic characterization. CAF feeding increased the weight gain, relative retroperitoneal white adipose tissue (RWAT %), and plasma levels of glucose, insulin, triglycerides and leptin and decreased the insulin sensitivity. Treadmill intervention partially reversed the RWAT% and triglyceride alterations; at higher intensity, it decreased the leptin levels of CAF-fed animals. CAF feeding decreased the motor activity and impaired the performance in a two-way active avoidance assessment. Treadmill intervention reduced defecation in the shuttle box, suggesting diminished anxiety. CAF feeding combined with treadmill training at 17 m/min increased the time spent in the center of the open field and more importantly, partially reversed the two-way active avoidance deficit. In conclusion, this study demonstrates that at doses that decreased anxiety-like behavior, treadmill exercise partially improved the coping strategy in terms of active avoidance behavior in the CAF-fed animals. This effect was not observed at lower doses of treadmill training.

Impact of a cafeteria diet and daily physical training on the rat serum metabolome

“…We have previously shown in Cigarroa et al . [ 13 ] that CAF-fed rats have higher amounts of triglycerides in their serum than animals fed ST, and this increase gradually drops with exercise until triglycerides nearly return to ST-fed levels in the TMH-CAF group ( Fig 1A ). CAF feeding also had significant effects on the remaining dyslipidemic variables (p<0.05, two-way ANOVA).…”

“…Training sessions were performed as previously described [ 13 ]. Briefly, the rats were trained on a treadmill 5 days per week for 30 min.…”

“…Cigarroa et al . [ 13 ] showed that CAF administered to weaning rats for 8 weeks induced a sharp rise in body and relative retroperitoneal white adipose tissue (% RWAT) weight, showing these animals a significant increase of 30% and 120% on these parameters, respectively, when compared with rats fed a standard chow (ST). Furthermore, CAF intake during this period of time also produced hyperleptinemia, hypertriglyceridemia, hyperglycemia and insulin resistance.…”

Maternal intake of grape seed procyanidins during lactation induces insulin resistance and an adiponectin resistance-like phenotype in rat offspring

“…The nutrient composition of CAF used herein as well as the caloric breakdown were recently described by Cigarroa et al . 29 . Body weight was recorded twice a week, and food intake was documented every 10 days.…”

Aerobic training reduces oxidative stress in skeletal muscle of rats exposed to air pollution and supplemented with chromium picolinate

“…Conversely, aerobic exercise could attenuate mass gain, likely due to increased energy expenditure, resulting in a negative energy balance and, consequently, a reduction of mass gain. Such an outcome was observed in an experimental study by Cigarroa et al [35], which demonstrated that a treadmill intervention could counterbalance the mass gain of animals fed a cafeteria diet.…”