title: Long-term treadmill exercise overcomes ischemia-induced apoptotic neuronal cell death in gerbils.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Exercise Physiology, Graduate School, Korea University, #1 5-Ka Anam-dong, Sungbuk-gu, Seoul 136-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Young-Je
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Sim
authors.forename: Hong
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jee-Youn
authors.initials: JY
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Sung-Jin
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Yoon
authors.forename: Sung-Soo
authors.initials: SS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Hyun-Kyung
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Taeck-Hyun
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hee-Hyuk
authors.initials: HH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Min-Chul
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Mal-Soon
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Chang-Ju
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: 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*
chemical_list: D053148:Caspase 3; D020169:Caspases