Sex differences in brain cholinergic activity in MSG-obese rats submitted to exercise.
Obesity is an epidemic disease most commonly caused by a combination of increased energy intake and lack of physical activity. The cholinergic system has been shown to be involved in the regulation of food intake and energy expenditure. Moreover, physical exercise promotes a reduction of fat pads and body mass by increasing energy expenditure, but also influences the cholinergic system. The aim of this study is to evaluate the interaction between physical exercise (swimming) and central cholinergic activity in rats treated with monosodium glutamate (MSG, a model for obesity) during infancy. Our results show that MSG treatment is able to induce obesity in male and female rats. Specifically, MSG-treated rats presented a reduced body mass and nasoanal length, and increased perigonadal and retroperitoneal fat pads in relation to the body mass. Physical exercise was able to reduce body mass in both male and female rats, but did not change the fat pads in MSG-treated rats. Increased food intake was only seen in MSG-treated females submitted to exercise. Cholinergic activity was increased in the cortex of MSG-treated females and physical exercise was able to reduce this activity. Thalamic cholinergic activity was higher in sedentary MSG-treated females and exercised MSG-treated males. Hypothalamic cholinergic activity was higher in male and female MSG-treated rats, and was not reduced by exercise in the 2 sexes. Taken together, these results show that MSG treatment and physical exercise have different effects in the cholinergic activity of males and females.
['Sagae|Sara Cristina|SC|', 'Grassiolli|Sabrina|S|', 'Raineki|Charlis|C|', 'Balbo|Sandra Lucinei|SL|', 'Marques da Silva|Ana Carla|AC|']
D000818:Animals D001921:Brain D059329:Cholinergic Neurons D004195:Disease Models, Animal D004435:Eating D005260:Female D008297:Male D009765:Obesity D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal D011247:Pregnancy D017208:Rats, Wistar D012727:Sex Characteristics D012970:Sodium Glutamate D013550:Swimming
cholinergic activity obesity physical exercise monosodium glutamate cortex activité cholinergique exercice physique glutamate monosodique hypothalamus obésité thalamus