GENDER DIFFERENCES IN GLUCOSE BLOOD LEVELS IN RATS AFTER FORCED SWIMMING EXERCISE

The aim of this study was to investigate possible differences in blood glucose levels between male and female rats immediately after acute bout of forced swimming exercise. Adult male Wistar rats (weight 300350 g) were divided into two groups by gender: males (n =8) and females (n =8). All the rats were given standard rat chow and tap water ad libitum and were housed at 25±3o C on a 12-hour dark/light cycle. Both groups of rats were exposed to forced swimming stress daily, for 6 days. Duration of each swimming session progressively increased from 5 minutes on the first day to 30 minutes on sixth day, allowing adaptation to swimming conditions. The rats were forced to swim in plastic tanks (90 cm wide, 120 cm deep) containing tap water (temperature ca. 25 degrees C). The depth of water was 40 cm. Seventh day we performed acute bout of 40 minutes swimming exercise. Animals were fasted 12 hours before start of last swimming sessions to obtain fasting blood glucose levels. Preexercise blood samples were taken immediately before th last swimming session (7 day) and postexercise samples immediately after the last swimming session from rat's tail vein. Glucose levels in blood were determined using Optium XceedTM Diabetes Monitoring System (Abbot). Before last swimming session male rats had slightly lower glucose levels in comparation with female rats, but this difference was not statistically significant (3.77vs4.64 mmol/l). Acute bout of forced swimming exercise raised blood glucose level and established values in postexercise period were significantly higher in both study group in comparation to values before exercise. Male rats had greater postexercise glucose blood levels (11.85 mmol/l) in comparation with female rats (6.26 mmol/l). Our findings document the existence of gender impact on the glucose postexercise concentrations confirming the differences in the energy substrates utilization and glucose metabolism regulation during and after exercise.