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Background: There is an increasing number of studies showing that physical activity and aerobic exercise have a positive effect on telomere length. Some studies also show that dynamics of telomere length is influenced by various environmental factors such as lifestyle and diet. However, the association between exercise and diet with telomere length is still questionable. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of aerobic physical exercise on relative telomere length changes in high fat-diet condition in rat animal models.

Methods: This study was an in vivo experimental study using twelve Sprague-Dawley male white rats (12-month-old). Subjects were evenly and randomly divided into two groups (n=6): (1) high fat-diet fed control group; (2) high fat-diet fed and aerobic exercise treatment group. Aerobic exercise was conducted using animal treadmill with intensity of 20 m/min, 5 days/week. At weeks 4 and 8, relative telomere length was compared with week 0 control group, using q-RT-PCR.

Results: Lengthening of relative telomere length was observed in both control and treatment groups at weeks 4 and 8, when compared to week 0 control group. The lengthening in the control group was much greater than the treatment group.

Conclusions: Excessive increase of relative telomere length was seen in high fat-diet conditions. Aerobic exercise for 8 weeks suppresses excessive increase of relative telomere length in high fat-diet conditions.