nutrients Article The Effects of High-Protein Diet and Resistance Training on Glucose Control and Inflammatory Profile of Visceral Adipose Tissue in Rats Claudia Stela Medeiros 1 , Ivo Vieira de Sousa Neto 2 , Keemilyn Karla Santos Silva 3 , Ana Paula Castro Cantuária 4,5 , Taia Maria Berto Rezende 4,5 , Octávio Luiz Franco 4,6 , Rita de Cassia Marqueti 2 , Leandro Ceotto Freitas-Lima 7 , Ronaldo Carvalho Araujo 7 , Azize Yildirim 8 , Richard Mackenzie 8 and Jeeser Alves Almeida 1,3, *   Citation: Medeiros, C.S.; de Sousa Neto, I.V.; Silva, K.K.S.; Cantuária, A.P.C.; Rezende, T.M.B.; Franco, O.L.; de Cassia Marqueti, R.; Freitas-Lima, L.C.; Araujo, R.C.; Yildirim, A.; et al. The Effects of High-Protein Diet and Resistance Training on Glucose Control and Inflammatory Profile of Visceral Adipose Tissue in Rats. Nutrients 2021, 13, 1969. https:// doi.org/10.3390/nu13061969 Academic Editors: Roberta Ceci and Guglielmo Duranti Received: 23 April 2021 Accepted: 25 May 2021 Published: 8 June 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). 1 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Saúde e Desenvolvimento na Região Centro-Oeste, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande 79070-900, Brazil; claudiastela2@gmail.com 2 Laboratório de Análises Moleculares, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências e Tecnologias em Saúde, Universidade de Brasília, Distrito Federal 72220-275, Brazil; ivoneto04@hotmail.com (I.V.d.S.N.); marqueti@gmail.com (R.d.C.M.) 3 Research in Exercise and Nutrition in Health and Sports Performance—PENSARE, Graduate Program in Movement Sciences, Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Campo Grande 79070-900, Brazil; keemilyn.karla@gmail.com 4 Centro de Análises Proteômicas e Bioquímicas, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências Genômicas e Biotecnologia, Universidade Católica de Brasília, Distrito Federal 70790-160, Brazil; apccantuaria@gmail.com (A.P.C.C.); taiambr@gmail.com (T.M.B.R.); ocfranco@gmail.com (O.L.F.) 5 Programa de Pós-Graduação em Ciências da Saúde, Universidade de Brasília, Distrito Federal 70910-900, Brazil 6 S-Inova Biotech, Porgrama de Pós-Graduação em Biotecnologia, Universidade Católica Dom Bosco, Campo Grande 79117-900, Brazil 7 Departamento de Biofísica, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo 04039-032, Brazil; lcf.lima@gmail.com (L.C.F.-L.); araujo.ronaldo@unifesp.br (R.C.A.) 8 Department of Life Science, Whitelands College, University of Roehampton, London SW15 4DJ, UK; yildiria@roehampton.ac.uk (A.Y.); richard.mackenzie@roehampton.ac.uk (R.M.) * Correspondence: jeeser.almeida@ufms.br Abstract: High-protein diets (HPDs) are widely accepted as a way to stimulate muscle protein synthesis when combined with resistance training (RT). However, the effects of HPDs on adipose tissue plasticity and local inflammation are yet to be determined. This study investigated the impact of HPDs on glucose control, adipocyte size, and epididymal adipose inflammatory biomarkers in resistance-trained rats. Eighteen Wistar rats were randomly assigned to four groups: normal-protein (NPD; 17% protein total dietary intake) and HPD (26.1% protein) without RT and NPD and HPD with RT. Trained groups received RT for 12 weeks with weights secured to their tails. Glucose and insulin tolerance tests, adipocyte size, and an array of cytokines were determined. While HPD without RT induced glucose intolerance, enlarged adipocytes, and increased TNF-α, MCP-1, and IL1-β levels in epididymal adipose tissue (p < 0.05), RT diminished these deleterious effects, with the HPD + RT group displaying improved blood glucose control without inflammatory cytokine increases in epididymal adipose tissue (p < 0.05). Furthermore, RT increased glutathione expression independent of diet (p < 0.05). RT may offer protection against adipocyte hypertrophy, pro-inflammatory states, and glucose intolerance during HPDs. The results highlight the potential protective effects of RT to mitigate the maladaptive effects of HPDs. Keywords: dietary management; exercise training; metabolism; adipokines 1. Introduction High-protein diets (HPD) have been increasingly popular in society owing to their association with enhanced satiety and energy expenditure, and thus they are used as Nutrients 2021, 13, 1969. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu13061969 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients