Neuroprotection associated with running: is it a result of increased endogenous neurotrophic factors?
The possible neuroprotective effect of physical exercise was investigated in rats after middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO), a focal stroke model. It was found that physical exercise in the form of a 12-week treadmill running programme reduced the volume of infarction caused by MCAO. At the molecular level, reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction revealed that the runner had increased gene expression for nerve growth factor (NGF) over the nonrunner with or without MCAO. Expression of the NGF receptors, p75, was increased only in the absence of MCAO. In addition, runners showed a significantly higher number of cholinergic neurons, which constitutively expressed p75, in the horizontal diagonal band of Broca. The present findings suggest that neuroprotection after physical exercise may be a result of an increase in an endogenous neurotrophic factor nerve growth factor and the proliferation of its receptive cholinergic neurons.
Ang
E T
ET
Department of Anatomy, Faculty of Medicine, National University of Singapore, MD10, 4 Medical Drive, Singapore 117597.
Wong
P T H
PT
Moochhala
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S
Ng
Y K
YK
D000818:Animals; D001522:Behavior, Animal; D020520:Brain Infarction / Q000378:metabolism; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D017931:DNA Primers; D020667:Diagonal Band of Broca / Q000378:metabolism; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005080:Exercise Test; D005786:Gene Expression Regulation; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D020244:Infarction, Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000378:metabolism / Q000503:physiopathology; D008297:Male; D020932:Nerve Growth Factor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism*; D012333:RNA, Messenger / Q000096:biosynthesis; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D020800:Receptor, Nerve Growth Factor; D017475:Receptors, Nerve Growth Factor / Q000235:genetics / Q000378:metabolism; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012420:Running / Q000502:physiology*; D020665:Septum of Brain / Q000378:metabolism; D020521:Stroke; D013997:Time Factors
D017931:DNA Primers; D012333:RNA, Messenger; D020800:Receptor, Nerve Growth Factor; D017475:Receptors, Nerve Growth Factor; D020932:Nerve Growth Factor; D002795:Choline O-Acetyltransferase