64-LB: Aerobic Exercise Decreases Hepatic Glucose Production via Asprosin Pathway in Diabetic Rats

The asprosin, a novel protein hormone released from white adipose tissue, plays an important role in the regulation of glucose metabolism for diabetes prevention. Aerobic exercise has been shown to improve type 1 diabetes (T1DM); however, exercise-induced asprosin production and its role in physiological regulation of metabolic pathways are still unclear. The aims of this study investigation were 1) to determine whether aerobic exercise could decrease asprosin levels in the liver of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats 2) to assess whether exercise-induced asprosin levels could contribute to asprosin-dependent downstream pathways for diabetes prevention. Five-weeks-old male Sprague-Dawley rats (n = 18) were randomly divided into control (CON), STZ-induced diabetes (STZ), and STZ with aerobic exercise (STZ-Ex) groups (n = 6 each). T1DM was induced by a single dose of STZ (65 mg/kg i.p.). The exercise group ran on treadmill for 60 min at a speed 20 m/min (4 times per week for 8 weeks). Following the 8-week experiment, the levels of asprosin, protein kinase A (PKA), 5’ adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK), protein kinase B (Akt), peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1α, β (PGC-1α, β), fibronectin type III domain-containing protein 5 (FNDC5), and uncoupling protein 3 (UCP3) were analyzed in liver. Protein expression of asprosin and PKA were significantly lower but AMPK, Akt, PGC-1β, and SOD2 were significantly higher in STZ-Ex group compared with STZ group. These findings suggest that aerobic exercise might serve as a potential physiological treatment for type 1 diabetes by decreasing asprosin and PKA levels in the liver. Disclosure J. Ko: None. T. Kim: None. D. Seo: None. J. Han: None. Funding Korean Ministry of Education (2010-0020224, 2018R1D1A1B07040370); Korean Ministry of Science, ICT and Future Planning (2018R1A2A3074998)