Effect of physical exercise on erythrocyte lipids, biliary cholesterol and bile lithogenicity in rats

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Abstract
Male Wistar rats were exercised (E) by daily 1 h swimming for 24 days. Sedentary controls (S) were caged individually. Bile analysis at the end of the experiment (24 h after the last exercise) showed a decrease in bile cholesterol (CH) (P < 0.02) and phospholipids (PL) (P < 0.01) in the exercising animals, but no significant change in the bile acids (BA). These changes in the exercising rats resulted in a decreased CH saturation of bile, an improvement in the BA + PL)/CH ratio (P = 0.05) and a trend to a decrease in the percent saturation of bile CH. Exercise did not affect the bile flow or bile acid flux rate. Exercise decreased erythrocyte phospholipids (P < 0.01). The effect of exercise on bile was associated with a trend to lower CH in the erythrocytes and the adipose tissue, and most likely does not represent a shift of cholesterol from the liver to the peripheral tissues. Physical exercise may be a preventing factor in cholesterol gallstone formation.