C-peptide level is controlled by exercise in childhood obesity

Childhood obesity has been considered as a disease since it causes problems in insulin regulation, inflammation induction and expression of adipocytokine secretion in childhood. As is well-known, exercise is an essential element in obesity treatment. Here we designed an exercise program to investigate how exercise affects childhood obesity. Non-obesity (n=17) and obesity (n=16) children, aged 11~12, performed the designed exercise program, 3 times per week for 16 weeks. We checked changes in health-related physical fitness of the subjects, as well as insulin-resistance (HOMA-IR) before and after the exercise programs. We also tested blood of the individual subjects, to know how C-peptide, resistin, Insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) and growth hormone (GH) levels are changed after the exercise program. We found that C-peptide level is 2-fold higher in the obesity group than the non-obesity group before the exercise program unlike other blood serum levels, then the C-peptide level of the obesity group drops down to a normal level similar to the non-obesity group after the 16-weeks exercise program. This evidence suggests that exercise may provide a decisive crucial physiological factor for childhood obesity by regulating body composition and C-peptide for inflammation.