After stabilization of the signal for 2 min, 20 record frames of 15 sec from each animal were randomly chosen for spike counting. The average number of spikes was used as the nerve firing rate for each rat. The branch of the sympathetic nerve from the lumbar plexus that innervates the retroperitoneal white fat tissue, which may be called the greater

splanchnic Buparlisib nerve, was dissected from another batch of anesthetized rats from all experimental groups, as described above. The electrode was placed under the greater splanchnic nerve, close to the retroperitoneal area. Firing rates from the nerve were obtained as described for the vagus nerve. Obesity assessment After all experimental procedure, as described above, both exercised and no-exercised rats were anaesthetized by an intraperitoneal injection of pentobarbital sodium (thiopental 45 mg/kg bw) and killed by cervical dislocation. The retroperitoneal fat pads were removed and weighed. The fat mass of this Selleckchem FDA-approved Drug Library tissue was used as a simple reliable estimation of total body fat in normal and obese rodents. Statistical analysis

The results are expressed as the mean ± SEM. Data were submitted to variance analysis (one-way ANOVA). In the case of analyses with a significant F, the differences between the means were evaluated by Tukey’s test. Probability values less than .05 (p < .05) were considered statistically significant. Tests were performed using GraphPad Prism version 5.0 for Windows (GraphPad

Software Inc., San Diego/CA, USA). Results Biometric parameters As shown in Table 1, the SL-N-EXE very group exhibited larger bw (10%) when compared to the NL-N-EXE group (p < .01). In the NL-EXE21–90 group, exercise reduced the bw by 13% compared to the NL-N-EXE group (p < .05). No differences were observed among the NL-N-EXE, NL-EXE21–50 and NL-EXE60–90 groups. In contrast, the SL-EXE21–90, SL-EXE21–50 and SL-EXE60–90 groups exhibited bw reductions around of 10%, in relation to the SL-N-EXE (p < .05). Table 1 Effect of low-intensity and moderate exercise training during different ages on fasting glycemia and biometric parameters     Body weight (g) AUC food intake (g/100 g of bw) Retroperitoneal fat pad (g/100 g bw) Glycemia (mg/dL) N-EXE NL 386.7 ± 4.2 179.0 ± 5.1 0.88 ± 0.02 81.8 ± 3.0   SL 423.1 ± 6.4** 205.0 ± 4.2** 1.66 ± 0.03** 109.4 ± 2.2** EXE 21–90 NL 334.5 ± 4.4* 180.5 ± 3.2 0.66 ± 0.02* 83.4 ± 2.1   SL 384.6 ± 5.0# 204.8 ± 1.3 1.07 ± 0.02# 89.5 ± 2.9# EXE 21–50 NL 395.8 ± 4.9 193.3 ± 3.2 0.76 ± 0.04 78.2 ± 1.9   SL 385.3 ± 10.1# 206.5 ± 1.5 1.21 ± 0.04# 94.2 ± 3.4# EXE 60–90 NL 387.7 ± 3.9 185.0 ± 5.7 0.73 ± 0.04 86.2 ± 3.2   SL 380.2 ± 9.6# 209.8 ± 4.7 0.97 ± 0.02# 87.2 ± 1.5# All values are expressed as the mean ± SEM of 10–16 rats from each experimental group. *p < .05 and **p < .01 v.s.