Night shiftwork-induced obesity, adverse glucose metabolism and oxidative stress in male Wistar rats

Abstract

Background: Due to social, economic and work demands for a round-the-clock availability in health care and other services, night shiftwork (NSW) has become so common in developing societies. Observational studies have documented adverse health outcomes
following NSW, however, interventional researches mimicking NSW are dearth.
Aim: The present study therefore aimed to evaluate the obesogenic, oxidative stress and dysglycaemic potentials of NSW in adult male Wistar rats.
Methodology: Sixteen rats (aged 8-10 weeks) were randomly assigned into control group (n=8) or NSW group (n=8) whom were sleep restricted and exposed to light at night (LAN) for six weeks. Fasting body weight and fasting blood sugar (FBS) were obtained using a
digital weighing scale and Glucometer respectively. Malondialdehyde was determined using the method of Albro et al. (1986) and Das et al. (1990) whereas catalase and superoxide dismutase activities were assayed using Abebi's (1974) and Fridovich (1989) methods respectively. Data were analyzed using SPSS V_20.0 and summarized using Mean±SEM. Student’s t-test was used to investigate differences between the groups and p≤ 0.05 was considered as statistically significant.
Results: The study findings have demonstrated that NSW increases body weight by 62% as compared to 40% in controls. Similarly, fasting blood sugar (FBS) (136 mg/dl vs. 110 mg/dl; p=0.001) and TriG index (6.1 vs. 5.6; p=0.020) were higher, while serum catalase activity is lower (p=0.003) in the NSW group than in controls.
Conclusion: The present study has demonstrated the obesogenic, diabetogenic and oxidative stress potentials of NSW in male Wistar rats.