Acute caffeine intake lowers glycemia before and after acute physical exercise in diabetic rats

OBJECTIVE:The present study investigated the effects of caffeine supplementation combined with acute physical exercise on the glycemic response of diabetic rats.METHODS:Thirty-two 60-day-old rats with a mean weight of 238±3 g were divided into four groups: control, control caffeine, diabetes, and diabetes/caffeine. Diabetes was induced by 60 mg/kg of streptozotocin intraperitoneally. The control groups received an acute dose of caffeine (6 mg) or saline 60 minutes before exercise. The animals were then forced to swim for 60 minutes carrying a ballast weighing 6% of their body weight, producing lactacidemia compatible with the maximum lactate production during the steady state (5.5 mmol/L). After the acute exercise session, the animals were sacrificed and their blood collected for glucose analysis. The cardiovascular responses were measured before and after supplementation by tail cuff plethysmography. The one-way Analysis of Variance (Anova) was realized with post hoc of Student-Newman-Keuls to analyse the statistical differences between the supplementations, considering p