Lean in one way, in obesity another: effects of moderate exercise in brown adipose tissue of early overfed male Wistar rats

Background Early postnatal overfeeding (PO) induces long-term overweight and reduces brown adipose tissue (BAT) thermogenesis. Exercise has been suggested as a possible intervention to increase BAT function. In this study, we investigated chronical effects of moderate-intensity exercise in BAT function in postnatal overfed male Wistar rats Methods Litters’ delivery was on postnatal-day 0 - PN0. At PN2, litters were adjusted to nine (normal litter – NL) or three pups (small litter – SL) per dam. Animals were weaned on PN21 and in PN30 randomly divided into sedentary (NL-Sed and SL-Sed) or exercised (NL-Exe and SL-Exe), N of 14 litters per group. Exercise protocol started (PN30) with an effort test; training sessions were performed three times weekly at 60% of the VO 2max achieved in effort test, until PN80. On PN81, a temperature transponder was implanted beneath the interscapular BAT, whose temperature was assessed in periods of lights-on and -off from PN87 to PN90. Sympathetic nerve activation of BAT was registered at PN90. Animals were euthanized at PN91 and tissues collected Results PO impaired BAT thermogenesis in lights-on ( p PO < 0.0001) and -off ( p PO < 0.01). Exercise increased BAT temperature in lights-on ( p Exe < 0.0001). In NL-Exe, increased BAT activity was associated with higher sympathetic activity ( p Exe < 0.05), β3-AR ( p Exe < 0.001), and UCP1 ( p Exe < 0.001) content. In SL-Exe, increasing BAT thermogenesis is driven by a combination of tissue morphology remodeling ( p Exe < 0.0001) with greater effect in increasing UCP1 ( p Exe < 0.001) and increased β3-AR ( p Exe < 0.001) content. Conclusion Moderate exercise chronically increased BAT thermogenesis in both, NL and SL groups. In NL-Exe by increasing Sympathetic activity, and in SL-Exe by a combination of increased β3-AR and UCP1 content with morphologic remodeling of BAT. Chronically increasing BAT thermogenesis in obese subjects may lead to higher overall energy expenditure, favoring the reduction of obesity and related comorbidities.