A rat model of obesity with or without body mass control strategies (training and/or diet manipulation): Evaluation of inflammatory responses and changes in cholinergic components in the lung

• Grant number: 22/14021-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2023
• End date: December 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Physiotherapy and Occupational Therapy
• Principal Investigator: Carla Máximo Prado
• Grantee: Beatriz Milani Fujihara
• Host Institution: Instituto de Saúde e Sociedade (ISS). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Baixada Santista. Santos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Obesity has reached alarming levels in the past few years and prospects indicate agrowing increase. It's pathophysiology is associated with a chronic state of systemicinflammation that's attached to the development of multiple comorbidities, many ofthem still without a clear interaction mechanism. Therefore, the researchesconnected to body mass control strategies are elaborated as a way to find possibleapproaches that can improve this clinical condition. The respiratory system is one ofthose affected by the pathophysiology of obesity, however the etiology of thiscorrelation is not fully clear. It is known that a chronic inflammatory process occurs inobesity and that respiratory diseases with inflammatory characteristics areexacerbated in obese individuals. An important mechanism for maintainingpulmonary homeostasis and controlling the inflammatory response is the cholinergicsystem, where the acetylcholine plays a fundamental part, especially when it acts onnicotinic receptors. The aim of the present study is the analysis of pulmonaryalterations from the weight gain and loss process, focusing on the inflammatoryresponse and in cholinergic components: VAChT, AChE, nACHR ±7 and ±4²2. Forthat, lungs from Wistar male rat submitted to a protocol of hyperlipidic diet followedby intervention with diet, physical exercise or both will be used. The animals havealready been euthanized and the student participated in the protocol and alsocollected the lungs for analysis of the inflammatory response and structural changesin the airways and lung parenchyma, in addition to evaluating the expression ofVAChT, AChE, nACHR ±7 and ±4²2 in cells present in the lung byimmunohistochemistry. Based on previous data from our research group, it isexpected that obese animals present alterations in the lungs and in the expression ofthe components of the cholinergic system in the lung, and that the control of weightgain can reverse these alterations.