Efeito do exercício físico intenso crônico e agudo sobre os níveis de melatonina, cortisol, hormônios sexuais e imunohistoquímica ovariana de ratas

Abstract

The last decades have been marked by an attempt to women's integration in sports, especially those that require intense physical exertion. The link between intense physical exertion and its consequences in ovarian histophysiology, is not yet fully elucidated. Thus, we evaluated the interference of intense physical exercise in the hormones estrogen, progesterone, prolactin, melatonin and cortisol, as well as IL6 expression, TNFα, VEGF, apoptotic index and cell proliferation in rat ovaries submitted to a chronic intense exercise protocol (swimming). We used 40 rats divided into the following groups: GI (animals without physical activity), GII (sedentary animals submitted to acute exercise on euthanasia day), GIII (animals trained kept at rest on euthanasia day) and GIV (Animals trained submitted to acute exercise on euthanasia day). Females were trained in a swimming system with intense exercise protocol. Sex hormones and cortisol were measured by ELISA and melatonin by RIA. For apoptosis measurement, TUNEL was used, for cellular proliferation measurement, we used primary antibody Ki-67 and for cytokines, specific antibodies were used. The plasma concentration of estrogen, progesterone and prolactin behaved similarly, with higher values (p <0.05) in females of GIII and GIV, with no difference between them. In relation to melatonin, higher concentrations (p <0.05) were observed in females of GIII and GIV and lower (p <0.05) in GII females. Females of the latter group had the highest cortisol doses (p <0.05) when comparing the others. An increase in the expression of IL-6 and TNF-α in the ovaries of females of GII and VEGF in females in Groups III and IV. There was a higher apoptotic index and lower proliferation index in the ovaries of females of the GII. There were no differences in these ovaries parameters of females in groups I, III and IV. We concluded that intense exercise performed sharply has greater power depletion of sex hormones, prolactin and melatonin and exacerbation of cortisol, whereas a chronic intense exercise protocol seems to have the opposite effect, suggesting a physiological adaptation to exercise and that intense exercise performed acutely and untrained previously seems to have a strong impact on women's reproductive histophysiology with greater cell damage and minor prognostic histological recovery.