Searchable abstracts of presentations at key conferences in endocrinology
Endocrine Abstracts (2011) 26 P344

ECE2011 Poster Presentations Obesity (47 abstracts)

The modulation of brain derived neurotrophic factor (bdnf) during exercise in obesity

A M Arafat 1 , A Brunelli 2 , H Budde 3 , A Adamidou 1 , J Spranger 1 , M Möhlig 1 & A F H Pfeiffer 1


1Charité-University Medicine Berlin, Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany; 2University of Roma ‘Foro Italico’, Rom, Italy; 3Institute of Sport Science, Humboldt University Berlin, Berlin, Germany.


Objectives: Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) plays a fundamental role in regulation of metabolism and energy homeostasis. Low BDNF levels have been identified as possible biological causes for development of obesity and BDNF administration has been shown to induce weight loss and to improve insulin sensitivity in diabetic animal models. Acute exercise is known to induce a transient increase of peripheral BDNF but no information is yet available regarding the exercise-induced modulation of BDNF in obesity.

Methods: We studied the BDNF responses to 30 minutes exercise on cyclo-ergometer at a self-selected intensity in 12 obese healthy subjects (OS) (6males; BMI 33.9±1.6 kg/m2) and 13 lean controls (LC) (6males; 21.6±0.5 kg/m2).

Blood samples were collected every 15 min: before, during exercise and for 90 minutes thereafter. Heart rate (HR) was monitored and serum BDNF concentration was measured with an ELISA.

Results: Age, gender, fasting glucose and BDNF levels were comparable between groups.

All the subjects concluded the 30 min of exercise at an average peak intensity of 138.4±42.6 W (85.2±10.8% of subjects’ HRmax.) that were comparable between groups (P>0.05).

Exercise increased BDNF significantly in both OS (22.8±5.2 ng/ml (baseline) vs 28.7±6.3 (30 min) and 21.4±6.2 (120 min); (P<0.01)) and LC (20.5±7.3 ng/ml (baseline) vs 27.8±9.9 (30 min) and 19.8±6.8 (120 min); (P<0.01)). The BDNF response was comparable between both groups (P>0.05).

Conclusions: We show that exercise increases in BDNF levels in lean subjects and that this effect was preserved in obesity.

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