The impact of aerobic exercise and Iranian ethanolic extract of bitter orange peel on PGC-1α gene expression in the liver tissue of obese female Wistar rats

Subject Areas : Physical Activity and Health

Amir Hesam Salmasi Fard ¹ , Mohammad Ali Azarbayjani ^{2 *} , فرهاد ریاضی راد ³ , maghsoud peeri ⁴ , حسن متین همایی ⁵

1 - Department of Exercise Physiology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2 - Department of Exercise Physiology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
3 - TarbiatModares University, Tehran, Iran
4 - department of physiology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
5 - Department of Exercise Physiology, Central Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2024-07-23 Accepted : 2024-08-21 Published : 2025-01-06

Keywords: aerobic training, orange peel, PGC-1α, obesity,

Abstract :

Objective: The present study investigated the simultaneous effect of aerobic training and bitter orange peel on PGC-1α in the liver tissue of obese female Wistar rats. Methods: For this study, Wistar rats were randomly divided into 5 groups of 6: healthy control, obese, obese+AT, obese+extract, and obese+AT+extract, and obesity protocol was applied. Aerobic training (AT) was done 5 days a week for 30 minutes with moderate intensity. Ethanol extract of bitter orange peel with a dose of 60 mg per kg of the rat's weight was administered by gavage for 6 weeks. The rats were sacrificed 48 hours after completing the protocols, and the liver tissue was removed and immediately frozen at -80. The real-time PCR method expressed the PGC-1α gene in liver tissue. For data analysis, independent t-tests and two-way analyses of variance ANOVA were performed using GraphPad Prism version 10 software with a significance level of p=0.05. Findings: The results showed that obesity caused a significant decrease in PGC-1α gene expression compared to the healthy control group (p=0.001). There was a significant difference in the expression of PGC-1α between the AT group, AT+bitter orange peel, and ethanol extract of orange peel with the obese group and healthy control (p=0.001); the highest expression was related to the group of AT+bitter orange peel ethanol extract. Conclusion: According to the research findings, aerobic training and the consumption of bitter orange can help reduce hepatocyte damage caused by a high-fat diet and obesity by enhancing the expression of the PGC-1α gene.

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