Long-term treadmill exercise overcomes ischemia-induced apoptotic neuronal cell death in gerbils.
It has been suggested that exercise may ameliorate neurologic impairment by impeding neuronal loss following various brain insults. In the present study, the effect of long-term treadmill exercise on short-term memory and apoptotic neuronal cell death in the hippocampus following transient global ischemia in gerbils was investigated. A step-down inhibitory avoidance task, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay, and immunohistochemistry for caspase-3 were used for this study. Ischemia was induced by occlusion of both the common carotid arteries of gerbils for 5 min. Gerbils in the exercise groups were forced to run on a treadmill for 30 min once a day for 4 consecutive weeks. The present results reveal that treadmill exercise for 4 weeks improved short-term memory by suppressing the ischemia-induced apoptotic neuronal cell death in the hippocampus. Here in this study, we show that long-term treadmill exercise for 4 weeks overcomes the ischemia-induced apoptotic neuronal cell death and thus facilitates the recovery of short-term memory impairment induced by ischemic cerebral injury.
Sim
Young-Je
YJ
Department of Exercise Physiology, Graduate School, Korea University, #1 5-Ka Anam-dong, Sungbuk-gu, Seoul 136-701, Republic of Korea.
Kim
Hong
H
Kim
Jee-Youn
JY
Yoon
Sung-Jin
SJ
Kim
Sung-Soo
SS
Chang
Hyun-Kyung
HK
Lee
Taeck-Hyun
TH
Lee
Hee-Hyuk
HH
Shin
Min-Chul
MC
Shin
Mal-Soon
MS
Kim
Chang-Ju
CJ
D000818:Animals; D017209:Apoptosis / Q000502:physiology*; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology; D053148:Caspase 3; D020169:Caspases / Q000378:metabolism; D053938:DNA Fragmentation; D018891:Dentate Gyrus / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology; D005849:Gerbillinae; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D020287:In Situ Nick-End Labeling; D002546:Ischemic Attack, Transient / Q000473:pathology*; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000473:pathology* / Q000502:physiology*; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal / Q000502:physiology*
D053148:Caspase 3; D020169:Caspases