A comparative study on the changes in plasma levels of fetuin-A, fat profile, and insulin resistance in healthy women and type 2 diabetic patients after 12 weeks of aerobic exercise

Abstract

Aim: The present study compared the changes in plasma levels of fetuin-A, fat profile, and insulin resistance in healthy women and type 2 diabetic patients after 12 weeks of aerobic exercise.

Methods: In this study, 18 healthy type 2 diabetic women with an age range of 40-45 years were selected using a purposeful sampling method. Then, they were divided into two groups: type 2 diabetic patients (n = 10) and healthy people (n = 8). Both groups performed aerobic exercises for 12 weeks (3 sessions per week, each session lasting 40-60 minutes) under the supervision of a trainer. The hypotheses were tested in SPSS software. Statistical significance was considered at the level of α ≤ 0.05.

Results: The results revealed that exercise caused a significant decrease in the mean of the fetuin-A variable in the patient group (P=0.008) after the exercise period. However, it had no significant effect on the mean of this variable in the healthy group (P=0.26). Although the exercise period decreased the mean level of high-density lipoprotein variable significantly in the patient group (P=0.002), it did not cause a significant effect in the means of other fat profile variables of this group including triglyceride (P=0.28), cholesterol (P=0.1), low-density lipoprotein (P=0.77), and all the fat profile variables of the healthy group including triglyceride (P=0.11), cholesterol (P=0.61), high-density lipoprotein (P=0.37), and low-density lipoprotein (P=0.88). Exercise caused a significant decrease in the mean insulin resistance variable in the healthy group (P=0.024). However, no significant change was observed in the mean insulin resistance variable of the patient group after the exercise period (P=0.33).

Conclusion: The results suggest that a 12-week period of aerobic exercise causes a significant decrease in fetuin-A levels in type 2 diabetic women. Additionally, the present study revealed that aerobic exercises had no significant effect on fetuin-A in healthy women.