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12-week treadmill exercise program elicits lower energy availability without changes in serum testosterone in male rats

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether a treadmill endurance exercise program would reduce serum testosterone and leptin in male rats and assess the impact of increased dietary cholesterol on serum hormones.

Methods

Male Sprague-Dawley Rats (n = 20) were randomly assigned to a control group (C) or an exercise training group (EX) that performed treadmill running 40 min/day, 6 days/week for 12 weeks. At study midpoint (week 6), rats were randomized to a high-cholesterol (HC) diet (n = 10) or remain on standard semi-purified (LC) diet (n = 10).

Results

Results are presented as median [IQR]. At end of week 6, EX + LC had significantly lower body weight (508 [460–527] vs 570 [516–606] g; p = 0.01), mean daily energy intake (76.3 [74.9–82.2] vs 90.9 [86.9–94.5] kcal; p < 0.01), and serum leptin (0.4 [0.3–0.6] vs 3.3 [2.0–4.0] ng/mL; p < 0.01) in comparison to C + LC. No difference was observed between EX + LC and C + LC in serum testosterone (12.6 [6.9–18.3] vs 11.7 [7.6–18.9] ng/mL). At end of week 12, EX + LC had significantly lower body weight (514 [483–568] g) compared to C + LC (644 [575–680] g; p < 0.01) and C + HC (650 [583–702] g; p < 0.01). Serum Leptin in both EX + LC (0.6 [0.2–0.8] ng/mL) and EX + HC (0.6 [0.3–1.6] ng/mL) was significantly lower than C + LC (3.0 [2.2–4.2] ng/mL; p < 0.01). No significant difference in testosterone was observed between C + LC and C + HC (4.3 [3.3–8.3] vs 6.3 [3.2–9.3] ng/mL, respectively).

Conclusions

Despite lower energy availability, exercise-induced changes in sex hormones may not occur in training programs ≤ 12 weeks. Lower voluntary energy intake observed in exercise groups despite greater energy expenditure may indicate that lower energy availability in endurance-trained individuals may be inadvertent.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Amy Finneral for her technical help with the animal facility.

Funding

This project was supported by a grant from the American Egg Board, Egg Nutrition Center, Washington, DC (T.A.W.).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biomedical Engineering and Biotechnology Doctoral Program, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA

    Lyra R. Clark, Michael J. Dellogono, Kelsey M. Mangano & Thomas A. Wilson

  2. Physical Therapy Doctoral Program, Department of Physical Therapy, University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, MA, USA

    Erin E. Chenette

  3. Department of Biomedical and Nutritional Sciences, University of Massachusetts Lowell, 3 Solomont Way, Suite 4, Lowell, MA, 01854-5124, USA

    Lyra R. Clark, Michael J. Dellogono, Erin E. Chenette, Kelsey M. Mangano & Thomas A. Wilson

  4. Institute for Aging Research, Hebrew SeniorLife, Harvard Medical School Affiliate, Boston, MA, USA

    Kelsey M. Mangano

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  1. Lyra R. Clark
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Correspondence to Thomas A. Wilson.

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None of the authors declare competing financial interests.

Ethical approval

All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee. All procedures were approved by the university animal research committee (IACUC).

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There is no informed consent for this study since the study was conducted on animals and not humans.

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Clark, L.R., Dellogono, M.J., Chenette, E.E. et al. 12-week treadmill exercise program elicits lower energy availability without changes in serum testosterone in male rats. Sport Sci Health 14, 537–545 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11332-018-0455-0

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