Adiponectin potentially contributes to the anti-depressive effects of Baduanjin Qigong exercise in women with chronic fatigue syndrome-like illness.

<p>Our recent study demonstrates that adiponectin signaling plays a significant role in mediating physical exercise-exerted effects on hippocampal neurogenesis and antidepression in mice. Whether the findings can be translated to humans remains unknown.</p><p>This study aimed to investigate the effects of Baduanjin Qigong exercise on adiponectin, and evaluate whether adiponectin is involved in the anti-depressive effects of Qigong exercise on chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)-like illness.</p><p>This is a randomized, waitlist-controlled trial. One hundred and eight female participants were randomly assigned to either Qigong exercise or waitlist groups. Sixteen 1.5-hour Qigong lessons were conducted. Outcome measures were taken at three time points.</p><p>Baseline adiponectin levels were negatively associated with body weight, body mass index, waist circumference, hip circumference and waist/hip ratio in women with CFS-like illness. Compared with waitlist control, Qigong exercise significantly reduced anxiety and depressive symptoms, and significantly raised plasma adiponectin levels (median = 0.8 vs. -0.1, p < 0.05). More interestingly, increases in adiponectin level following Qigong exercise were associated with decreases in depression score for the Qigong group (r = - 0.38, p = 0.04). Moreover, adjusted linear regression analysis further identified Qigong exercise and change in adiponectin level as the significant factors accounting for reduction of depressive symptoms.</p><p>Baduanjin Qigong significantly increased adiponectin level in females with CFS-like illness. Decreases in depressive symptoms were associated with increases in adiponectin levels following Qigong exercise, indicating that the potential contribution of adiponectin to Qigong exercise-elicited anti-depressive effects in human subjects.</p&gt.

PMID: 27938498 DOI: 10.3727/096368916X694238