Background: High intensity training can lead to lower the appetite. So, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of folate supplementation on ghrelin level of stomach and insulin level of serum in male wistar rats during 10 weeks of high intensity interval training (HIIT).

Materials and Methods: Twenty seven male Wistar rats (weight= 203.94±27.34 gr, Age: 9 weeks) after one week familiarization, were randomly divided into four groups: control (n=6), folate supplementation (n=6), (HIIT) (n=7) and HIIT+ folate supplement (n=8). HIIT training protocol started with 30 m/min running on treadmill for 1 min with 10 reps and 2 min active rest at the first week and reached to 75-80 m/min for 1 min with 7 reps and 3 min active rest at last 3 weeks. Acylated ghrelin level of stomach tissue and serum level of insulin were assayed by ELISA kit.

Results: The results of Kruskal-vallis analysis showed that the ghrelin level of stomach was increased significantly (p=0.001) in folate+HIIT in compare with HIIT group. Also, insulin level of serum was decreased significantly (p=0.001) in folate +HIIT in compare with control and HIIT groups.

Conclusion: Based on our results, folate supplementation during high intensity interval training, increased the ghrelin of stomach and decreased the insulin level of serum. So, it seems that folate supplementation can prevent from losing appetite in athletes who train with high intensity training with interval type.