The rat adequately reflects human responses to exercise in blood biochemical profile: a comparative study.
Georgios Goutianos, Aikaterini Tzioura, Antonios Kyparos, Vassilis Paschalis, Nikos V Margaritelis, Aristidis S Veskoukis, Andreas Zafeiridis, Konstantina Dipla, Michalis G Nikolaidis, Ioannis S Vrabas
Author Information
Georgios Goutianos: Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at Serres, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Serres, Greece.
Aikaterini Tzioura: Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at Serres, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Serres, Greece Department of Hematology - Blood Bank, General Hospital of Serres, Serres, Greece.
Antonios Kyparos: Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at Serres, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Serres, Greece.
Vassilis Paschalis: Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, University of Thessaly, KariesTrikala, Greece.
Nikos V Margaritelis: Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at Serres, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Serres, Greece.
Aristidis S Veskoukis: Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at Serres, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Serres, Greece.
Andreas Zafeiridis: Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at Serres, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Serres, Greece.
Konstantina Dipla: Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at Serres, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Serres, Greece.
Michalis G Nikolaidis: Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at Serres, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Serres, Greece.
Ioannis S Vrabas: Exercise Physiology and Biochemistry Laboratory, Department of Physical Education and Sports Science at Serres, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Serres, Greece.
Animal models are widely used in biology and the findings of animal research are traditionally projected to humans. However, recent publications have raised concerns with regard to what extent animals and humans respond similar to physiological stimuli. Original data on direct in vivo comparison between animals and humans are scarce and no study has addressed this issue after exercise. We aimed to compare side by side in the same experimental setup rat and human responses to an acute exercise bout of matched intensity and duration. Rats and humans ran on a treadmill at 86% of maximal velocity until exhaustion. Pre and post exercise we measured 30 blood chemistry parameters, which evaluate iron status, lipid profile, glucose regulation, protein metabolism, liver, and renal function. ANOVA indicated that almost all biochemical parameters followed a similar alteration pattern post exercise in rats and humans. In fact, there were only 2/30 significant species × exercise interactions (in testosterone and globulins), indicating different responses to exercise between rats and humans. On the contrary, the main effect of exercise was significant in 15/30 parameters and marginally nonsignificant in other two parameters (copper, P = 0.060 and apolipoprotein B, P = 0.058). Our major finding is that the rat adequately mimics human responses to exercise in those basic blood biochemical parameters reported here. The physiological resemblance of rat and human blood responses after exercise to exhaustion on a treadmill indicates that the use of blood chemistry in rats for exercise physiology research is justified.
