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The Effects of Interval Resistance-Aerobic Training and Fisetin Supplementation on Asprosin and Selected Adipokines in Obese Men: A Double-Blind Randomized Control Trial

Alipour M, Saeidi A, Hejazi K, Supriya R, Zouhal H
Nutrients 2026 18(3):433

Bibliography

PubMed
PMID 41683255
PubMed Central
PMC12899003
DOI
10.3390/nu18030433
Funding
This research received no external funding (per the published Funding statement).
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing interests (per Conflicts of Interest statement).

Study snapshot

Design12-week, double-blind, parallel-group randomised controlled trial, intention-to-treat analysis.
ModelSedentary obese adult men.
Sample107 assessed for eligibility, 60 randomised (15 per arm: control-placebo, fisetin, training-placebo, training+fisetin) and analysed by intention-to-treat with group-mean imputation for 16 withdrawals; descriptive statistics in the results tables are shown for the n=44 completers (11 per arm).
InterventionFisetin 200 mg/day, daily continuous dosing, alone or combined with interval resistance-aerobic training (8 exercises, 3x13 reps at 60% 1RM with active rest, followed by staged aerobic bouts at 50-70% max heart rate), for 12 weeks.
Duration12 weeks
EndpointsAsprosin; MCP-1; Adiponectin; Leptin; Lipid profile (LDL-C, triglycerides, total cholesterol, HDL-C); Body weight and BMI

What the study showed, in plain terms

A second completed human RCT from the same research group, in a larger cohort of sedentary obese men (60 vs 44 in the companion Maresin-1 paper), testing the same daily 200 mg fisetin dose alone and combined with resistance-aerobic training, this time focused on asprosin (a hormone linked to insulin resistance) and other adipokines.

The training-plus-fisetin group had the largest reductions in asprosin (down 60.7%) and MCP-1, a marker of inflammation (down 46.5%), plus improvements across the full lipid panel — lower LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and total cholesterol, and higher HDL cholesterol. The placebo group, by contrast, got numerically worse on LDL and HDL over the same period.

Combined with the companion Maresin-1 paper, this gives a genuine, if population-specific, human evidence base for fisetin's metabolic effects at a continuous daily dose — distinct from, and complementary to, the pulsed senolytic protocol tested in the frailty and osteoarthritis trials.

Key findings

  • Significant between-group difference in body weight after adjusting for baseline (p<0.001); the training+fisetin, training-only, and fisetin-only groups all achieved significant weight loss versus placebo.
  • Asprosin fell by 60.7% and MCP-1 by 46.5% in the training-plus-fisetin group, the largest reductions of any arm (p<0.001 for both).
  • Adiponectin rose significantly in the training-placebo (29.4%) and training-fisetin (27.7%) groups (p<0.05).
  • Full lipid panel improved significantly in the training-plus-fisetin group (lower LDL-C, triglycerides, total cholesterol; higher HDL-C, all p<0.05), while the placebo group's LDL-C rose and HDL-C fell over the same period.

What this study can and cannot tell us

  • Single population studied (sedentary obese adult men, single geographic region -- Kurdistan, Iran) -- findings may not generalise to women, non-obese adults, or older frailty-focused populations.
  • Daily continuous 200 mg dosing, not the pulsed 20 mg/kg protocol used in the frailty and osteoarthritis trials -- evidence for a different dosing paradigm.
  • The authors themselves note that direct mechanistic assays were not conducted, so the biological explanation for the asprosin/adipokine changes remains inferred rather than confirmed.
  • Confirmed via full-text cross-reference: this trial and the companion Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition paper on Maresin-1 and inflammatory markers (Alipour et al., same registration IRCT20120129008863N14, same ethics approval IR.HSU.REC.1404.044, identical 107-to-60 recruitment funnel and exclusion breakdown) report the SAME underlying randomised trial and the same 60 participants, split into two outcome-focused publications. Treat as two facets of one trial, not independent replication. The two papers used different primary analysis populations for reporting (this paper: intention-to-treat with imputation, N=60; companion paper: per-protocol, n=44), which readers should not mistake for a discrepancy in underlying data.

Related papers in the corpus

Tier 2
12-weeks fisetin supplementation and interval resistance with aerobic training: changes in Maresin-1 and inflammatory markers in men with obesity: a randomized controlled trial
Alipour M et al. · Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition · 2026

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Dr. Khaled Mahmoud, MBBChCritical Care Medicine, Longevity Science & Editorial Direction Dr. Amr Yasser, PhDCardiometabolic, Musculoskeletal, Gut & Bioavailability