2016-05-06

Background: Irisin, a newly discovered hormone, is secreted into the circulation from skeletal muscles in response to physical exercise. It has been shown to stimulate the conversion of white adipose tissue to brown adipose tissue and enhancing energy expenditure. Objective: To study the relationship of Military training with serum irisin hormone, oxidative status, Lipid profile, fasting blood sugar, proteins levels and anthropometeric measurents in healthy volunteers and to know which of the studied parameters are correlated to irisin level. Subjects and Methods: This follow-up of Military training study was carried out during the period from July to August 2015. A total of 39 apparently healthy male participated in this study. The volunteers were students in the Military Academy / Zakho, Kurdistan region of Iraq; their ages ranged from 22-27 years with a mean of 24 years. Blood samples were taken at rest and fast for (8-9) hour’s pre and post 4 and 8 weeks of exercise and analyzed for the determination of irisin hormone, hs-CRP, oxidative stress parameters, Lipid profiles, fasting blood sugar, and protein fractions levels. Results: The present study showed that regular physical activity for 4 and 8 weeks increases irisin hormone secretion gradually and significantly (p=0.018). Ceruloplasmin, level significantly increased (p=0.006). A significant reductions were found in peroxynitrite levels (p=0.039) and protein carbonyl (p=0.031) after 8 weeks of exercise. The inflammation marker hs-CRP was also highly and significantly (p=0.011) decreased after 4 and 8 weeks of training . A significant decline (p<0.05) were found in diastolic and systolic blood pressure, waist circumference, body mass index, serum glucose, total cholesterol, Triglyceride, LDL, TC/HDL and LDL/HDL. While the HDL, total protein, and globulin levels were slightly and significantly increased with increasing exercise period (p<0.05). Significant correlations were found between irisin and diastolic blood pressure at baseline (r=0.397), irisin and serum albumin (r=0.44) after 4 weeks and irisin with body mass index (r=-0.478) after 8 weeks of exercise. Conclusion: This study demonstrated that training for long period enhances irisin hormone secretion which in turn increases energy expenditure, which has many health benefits. It was associated with a decrease in blood glucose and all lipid components except HDL which increased along with total protein, albumin and globulin levels. Moreover, exercise suppressed inflammation and improved oxidative status by increasing antioxidants and decreasing pro-oxidant levels.