Introduction: Plasma levels of adhesion molecules are considered important indicators in estimating the risk of cardiovascular diseases. Since endurance training and a fasting diet are effective in reducing the symptoms of heart diseases, this study aimed to investigate the effect of a period of endurance training with electrical stimulation on the expression of ICAM and VCAM genes in the heart tissue of obese fasting rats.
Methods: In this study, 35 male Wistar rats (8 weeks old, avg. weight 200±19 g) were randomly assigned to 5 groups (obese control, fasting, fasting with endurance training, fasting with electrical stimulation, fasting with endurance training with electrical stimulation) after inducing obesity. Fasting utilized a 16/8 protocol for all groups except the obese control. The endurance training lasted 4 weeks, increasing intensity from 50% to 65% of max oxygen consumption. Electrical stimulation was delivered via foot shock (0.5 mA for 20 min). Heart tissue was collected 24 hours post-training under anesthesia, with ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 gene expression measured via Real-time PCR. Data was analyzed using two-way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc test in SPSS version 26, with significance at P≥0.05.
Results: The results of the present study demonstrated that intermittent fasting, endurance training, and electrical stimulation—each independently—led to a significant reduction in the gene expression of vascular adhesion molecules in the cardiac tissue of obese rats (P = 0.001). Moreover, it appears that the combination of all three interventions exerts a greater effect in reducing the expression levels of these adhesion molecules in the cardiac tissue of obese rats (P = 0.001).
Conclusion: Based on the findings, the simultaneous application of endurance training, intermittent fasting, and electrical stimulation exerts a considerable impact on decreasing the expression of VCAM and ICAM in cardiac tissue. However, it is still not possible to definitively determine the directionality of the individual or combined effects of intermittent fasting, endurance training, and electrical stimulation (foot-shock stimulation) on adhesion molecules under conditions of obesity and intermittent fasting.
