Research Paper|Volume 9, Issue 8|pp 1926—1940

Chronic exercise reduces hypothalamic transforming growth factor-β1 in middle-aged obese mice

Vagner R. R. Silva^1,², Carlos K. Katashima², Luciene Lenhare^1,², Carla G. B. Silva², Joseane Morari⁴, Rafael L. Camargo², Licio A. Velloso⁴, Mario A. Saad², Adelino S. R. da Silva⁵, Jose Rodrigo Pauli^1,³, Eduardo Rochete Ropelle^1,^2,³

¹School of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas, Limeira, SP, Brazil
²Department of Internal Medicine, University of Campinas, Campinas, SP, Brazil
³CEPECE - Research Center of Sport Sciences, School of Applied Sciences, University of Campinas, Limeira, SP, Brazil
⁴Laboratory of Cell Signaling, Obesity and Comorbidities Research Center, University of Campinas, Campinas, 1308-970, Brazil
⁵Postgraduate Program in Rehabilitation and Functional Performance, Ribeirão Preto Medical School, USP, School of Physical Education and Sport of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil

Received: July 9, 2017Accepted: August 25, 2017Published: August 28, 2017

https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.101281

Copyright: © 2017 Silva et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Obesity and aging are associated with hypothalamic inflammation, hyperphagia and abnormalities in the thermogenesis control. It has been demonstrated that the association between aging and obesity induces hypothalamic inflammation and metabolic disorders, at least in part, through the atypical hypothalamic transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β1). Physical exercise has been used to modulate several metabolic parameters. Thus, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of chronic exercise on TGF-β1 expression in the hypothalamus of Middle-Aged mice submitted to a one year of high-fat diet (HFD) treatment. We observed that long-term of HFD-feeding induced hypothalamic TGF-β1 accumulation, potentiated the hypothalamic inflammation, body weight gain and defective thermogenesis of Middle-Aged mice when compared to Middle-Aged animals fed on chow diet. As expected, chronic exercise induced negative energy balance, reduced food consumption and increasing the energy expenditure, which promotes body weight loss. Interestingly, exercise training reduced the TGF-β1 expression and IkB-α ser32 phosphorylation in the hypothalamus of Middle-Aged obese mice. Taken together our study demonstrated that chronic exercise suppressed the TGF-β1/IkB-α axis in the hypothalamus and improved the energy homeostasis in an animal model of obesity-associated to aging.