Aerobic interval exercise improves parameters of Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) and other alterations of metabolic syndrome in obese Zucker rats.

Metabolic syndrome (MS) is a group of metabolic alterations that increase the susceptibility to cardiovascular disease and type II diabetes. Non Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease (NAFLD) has been described as the liver manifestation of MS. We aimed to test the beneficial effects of an aerobic interval training (AIT) protocol on different biochemical, microscopic, and functional liver alterations related to the MS in the experimental model of obese Zucker rat. Two groups of lean and obese animals (6 weeks old) followed a protocol of aerobic interval training (4 min at 65-80% of VO2 max, followed by 3 min at 50-65% of VO2 max, 45-60 min, 5 days/week, 8 weeks of experimental period), whereas two control groups remained sedentary. Obese rats had higher food intake and body weight (PThe accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author