Effects of aerobic training on soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1) and lipid profile in overweight elderly women

Effects of aerobic training on soluble intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (sICAM-1)
and lipid profile in overweight elderly women

Purpose: Occurrences of cardiovascular diseases are usually predicted via lipid profile measuring,
however, cardiovascular diseases are also observed in people with natural lipid profile. Hence, the
investigators try to find more sensitive inflammatory markers such as soluble intercellular adhesion
molecule-1 (sICAM-1). Therefore, the present study aimed to investigate the effects of 8 week aerobic
training on sICAM-1 and lipid profile in Iranian overweight elderly women. Methods: In this semiexperimental
study, 40 overweight elderly women (72±7 years) who had no regular physical activity
were non-randoinly selected as the subjects, randomly divided into experimental (n = 20) and control
groups (n = 20). Fasting blood samples were taken before and after 8 weeks of aerobic training. Aerobic
training was performed at an intensity corresponding to 60% of the subjects' maximal heart rate for 3
d/wk and for 8 weeks. Kolmogrov Smirnov test was shown normal distribution of data, so paired t-test
was used to determine the differences between before and after training data in each group, and
independent t-test was used to compare data in training and control groups. Statistical significance was
set at P < 0.05. Results: LDL-C, TC, TG, sICAM-1 levels and BMI significantly decreased and HDL-C
increased non-significantly in the experimental group after 8 weeks of aerobic training. There was no
significant changes observed between the groups in HDL-C and TC, but LDL-C, TG, sICAM-1 and
BMI changed significantly. Conclusion: Aerobic training may be having an important role in the
prevention and control of cardiovascular diseases in elderly women by decreasing sICAM-1, LDL-C,
TG and TC. Also, due to this fact that sICAM-1 is more sensitive than lipid profile, it is reasonable to
measure it in accurate evaluation for incidence of cardiovascular diseases.