PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of complex training and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid (n3PUFA) supplementation on health-related physical fitness tests, serum lipoprotein profiles and inflammatory markers in college female students. METHODS: Thirty college females were randomly assigned to one of three groups: Group I (placebo, 3.6g/day, n = 10); Group II [n3PUFA (2.4g/day) + placebo (1.2g/day), n = 10)]; Group III (n3PUFA, 3.6g/day, n = 10) with complex training for 12 weeks. The complex training indicates the combination of muscular resistance exercise (50-70% of 1RM, 3-4d/w, 3-20s/r) and aerobic exercise (40-75% of HRmax, 3-4d/w, 15-35min/d). All subjects were measured before and after 12 week of treatment including body weight, body fat mass, percent body fat, BMI, muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance, flexibility, total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol ratio, LDL cholesterol, triglyceride, C-reactive protein(CRP), tumor necrosis factor-a (TNF-a), leptin, red blood cell count (RBC), white blood cell count (WBC). Analysis of covariance, Duncan's post-hoc test, Pearson correlation, simple regression, and Durbin-Watson statistic were used to determine the statistical significance. RESULTS: There were significant mean differences on BMI, body weight, flexibility and CRP among three groups. The group III had lower CRP, body weight, or flexibility values as compared with Place groups (I, II). (p=.05). There were significant associations between health-related fitness components and CRP (r=-.36, p=.01), triglyceride (r=-.25, p=.01) and RBC (r=.30, p=.05). There were no significant mean differences in percent body fat, body fat mass, muscular strength, muscular endurance, cardiorespiratory endurance, total cholesterol/ HDL cholesterol ratio, LDL cholesterol, triglyceride, WBC, TNF-a and leptin values across three groups. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of complex training and n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation may be particularly important on health related physical fitness and inflammatory markers in college female students.

The effects of hypocaloric diet and aerobic exercise on inflammatory markers and blood lipids across young female pre-diabetic populations remain less clear. PURPOSE: This study examined the effects of diet and aerobic exercise on inflammatory markers and blood lipids in pre-diabetic young female adults. METHODS: Thirty one insulin-resistant female subjects, ages 19 to 22 years, were randomly assigned to either a hypocaloric diet group (n = 15; energy intake <1000 kcal/day) or a hypocaloric diet and an aerobic exercise group (n = 16; 60-75% THR; 3–5 day/wk; energy expenditure 200–900 kcal/wk) for 12 weeks. Inflammatory markers [high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (HS-CRP), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha)] and blood lipids [triglycerides (TG), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), plasma leptin] were measured at before and after the intervention, using the standardized medical measurement procedures. Analysis of covariance was used to test mean differences after adjustment for covariates. Pearson correlation was also used to examine the associations of change in aerobic capacity with reduced/improved scores in inflammatory markers or blood lipids. RESULTS: Pre-diabetic young female adults who engaged in aerobic exercise for 12 weeks had significantly lower TNF-alpha, HS-CRP, body weight, percent body fat, plasma leptin as compared with those who had a hypocaloric diet (p<0.05). The aerobic exercise group also had higher HDL-C and total body water after the intervention as compared with diet group (p<0.05), but there were no statistical differences in TG and IL-6 values between the two groups. Increase in aerobic capacity was also significantly associated with decrease in HS-CRP (r = −0.38, p<.05), and increase in HDL-C (r = 0.37, p<.05), respectively. CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that aerobic exercise reduces TNF-alpha and HS-CRP in pre-diabetic female young adults. This association remained nonsignificant in IL-6.