Pharmacophore an International Research Journal
Background and Purpose: Adipokine chemerin is a pre-inflammationan associated with obesity and metabolic syndrome. The aim of the present study was to investigate the changes in the plasma levels of chemerin of women with overweight and obese during a period of training on a cycle-ergometer using hydroalcoholic extract of urtica. Materials and Methods: This quasi-experimental study was performed on 44 overweight and obese women (BMI>25Kg/m2) with age range of 30-45 in Zahedan. Subjects were selected targeted and using permuted block randomization were divided into four groups of 11 subjects including training groups + hydroalcoholic extract of urtica (1), exercise + placebo (2), control + hydroalcoholic extract of urtica (3) and control+placebo (4). Training protocol was performed for 8 weeks (3 sessions per week) by cycling on a cycle-ergometer (60-75% heart rate reserve) and duration of 16 to 30 minutes along with the use of hydroalcoholic extract of urtica (8 ml daily) and placebo (8 ml daily) in different groups. Blood samples were collected in two stages before and after the same conditions in order to measure plasma levels of chemerin. To analyze the results, t-test, ANOVA, covariance and Kruskal-Wallis analysis were used at a significant level of α <0.05. Results: Intra-group comparisons showed that 8 weeks of aerobic exercise along with using hydroalcoholic extract of urtica, in addition to significant reduction of obesity-related factors in groups 1,2,3, significantly reduced plasma levels of chemerin in group 1 (P=0.001) and 2 (p=0.002). In inter-group comparison, there was a significant difference between the changes in plasma levels of chemerin of the studied groups. Conclusion: It seems that training on cycle-ergometer with the use of hydroalcoholic extract of urticacan be considered as a preventive approach in reducing the pre-inflammatory factor of chemerin and obesity-related factors in overweight and obese women.
