Effects of selected long-term aerobic exercises on serum leptin level of non-athlete young men and women

  Background: There is a discrepancy about the effects of regular exercise training on basal leptin level and most of the existing data are obtained from obese/thin subjects.   Objective: The present study was conducted to investigate the effects of selected one-year aerobic exercises on basal serum leptin level in normal weight untrained healthy male and female volunteers.   Methods: The sample of this semi-experimental study included 44 non-athlete male and female students of Azerbaijan Shahid Madani University in 2010. Subjects were initially homogenized and later divided into two intervention and control groups each consisted of male and female subgroups. The experimental groups experienced one year of specific volleyball training protocol. In two occasions including 24 hours before and 24 hours after the end of study the basal blood samples were collected. Plasma l eptin levels were measured by ELISA and the data were analyzed using paired samples dependent and independent T tests as well as one-way and two-way ANOVA.   Findings: The basal plasma leptin levels in healthy young non-athlete individuals did not fluctuate in response to regular long term exercise. Serum leptin levels in women were 29.55 ± 1.45 (pre-study) and 30.05 ± 2.25 (post-study) and those of men 31.22 ± 2.24 and 29.28 ± 3.12 ng/dl, respectively.   Conclusion : According to the findings and also the role of fat tissue as the main source of plasma leptin, it could be concluded that lack of effect of physical exercise on plasma leptin concentration might be due to unchanged level of adipose tissue in our subjects during the study.