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Exercise reduces cardiac adipose tissue mass
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Among adults with abdominal obesity, endurance and resistance training reduced certain kinds of cardiac adipose tissue mass, researchers reported.
In a secondary analysis of a randomized controlled trial, the researchers evaluated 50 physically inactive patients with abdominal obesity (mean age, 41 years; 26% men; mean BMI, 32 kg/m2) who were assigned supervised high-intensity interval endurance training, resistance training or no exercise.
The primary outcome was change in epicardial and pericardial adipose tissue mass as assessed by MRI.
At 12 weeks, epicardial fat mass was reduced by 32% (95% CI, 10-53) in the endurance training group, reduced by 24% (95% CI, 1-46) in the resistance training group and increased by 24% in the control group (95% CI, 1-24; between-group difference for endurance vs. control, 56%; 95% CI, 24-88; between-group difference for resistance vs. control, 48%; 95% CI, 15-81), Regitse Højgaard Christensen, MD, from The Centre of Inflammation and Metabolism and the Centre for Physical Activity Research, Rigshospitalet, University of Copenhagen, and colleagues wrote.
Pericardial fat mass at 12 weeks was reduced in the resistance training group compared with controls (between-group difference, 31%; 95% CI, 16-47), but was not reduced in the endurance training group compared with controls (P = .17), according to the researchers.
Compared with controls, LV mass increased at 12 weeks in the endurance group (20 g; 95% CI, 11-30) and in the resistance group (18 g; 95% CI, 8-28), the researchers wrote.
Other cardiometabolic parameters did not differ between the groups at 12 weeks.
“Given that excessive epicardial and pericardial adipose tissue are risk factors of cardiovascular disease, our results may have clinical potential as a means to reduce cardiac adipose tissue mass,” Christensen and colleagues wrote. “The beneficial cardiovascular-lowering risk of current antidiabetic therapeutics has been hypothesized to be in part driven by a reduction in epicardial and pericardial volume. Hence, this study shows that both endurance and resistance training may have the potential as preventive strategies.” – by Erik Swain
Disclosures: One author reports he received personal fees from Novo Nordisk. Christensen and the other authors report no relevant financial disclosures.
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