Effect of aerobic exercise on some factors of cardiac apoptosis in male rats

Abstract

Background: Cardiac apoptosisplays an important role in myocardial diseases. Current evidence suggests that exercise training may modify some apoptosis-related signaling in myocardium. This study aimedto investigate the effect of aerobic training on cardiac Bax, Bcl2 and caspase-3 inmale rats. Materials and Methods: In this experimental study, Sixteen Wistar male rats 10 weeks old with 299.74±19.32 g weight were randomly classified into control and training groups. Training groups have performed an aerobic running program (at 10-18 m/min, 10-40 min/day, and 5 days/week) on a motor-driven treadmill for six weeks.Forty eight hours after the last training session, rats were sacrificed; hearts were excised and immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored at -80 °C.Bax, Bcl2 and caspase3 protein expression were evaluated by ELISA and western blot. Data were analyzed using Independent t-test and ANCOVA at P<0.05. Result: The results showed that six weeks aerobic training significantly decreased heart Bax in rats (P=0.045). Also heart Bcl2 (P=0.003) and caspase-3 (P=0.040) were significantly increased in comparison to the training group. Conclusion: Moderate-intensity aerobic exercise seems to modify some factors affecting the apoptosis of the heart tissue of male rats.

Keywords

• exercise training
• cardiac disease
• caspase3
• bax
• bcl2