the effect of eight weeks of combined high-intensity interval training on intrahepatic pgc-1α and pepck protein in male rats with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis

Introduction: non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (nafld) is a globally prevalent, non-communicable metabolic disease. therefore, treatment strategies for this disease are essential. this research aimed to examine the effect of eight weeks of combined high-intensity interval training on intrahepatic pgc-1α and pepck protein in male rats with non-alcoholic steatohepatitis. methods: a total of 40 rats aged 6-8 weeks were divided into two groups: healthy (n=20) and high-fat diet (hfd) (n=20). the hfd group was randomly divided into control-patient (n=9) and training-patient (n=9) after eight weeks and assurance of disease induction. the healthy group was divided into control-healthy (n=9) and training-healthy (n=9). the training group rats performed hiit in aquatic and land environments (saturdays and wednesdays in aquatic environments and mondays on a treadmill). one-way anova and bonferroni’s post hoc test (p<0.05) were performed to determine the difference between groups.  results: intrahepatic pgc-1α protein levels significantly increased in the healthy control group compared to the patient control (p=0.04). in addition, intrahepatic pepck protein levels significantly increased in the control-healthy group (p=0.01), training-healthy (p=0.002), training-patient group (p=0.03), and training-patient (p=0.03) group compared to the control-patient group. conclusion: based on the results, combined high-intensity interval training can effectively regulate the pgc-1α/pepck mechanism, a potential mechanism for regulating glucose and lipid metabolism in the liver. however, further research is needed in this regard to obtain conclusive results.