title: Voluntary exercise promotes proliferation and differentiation of adult rat hypothalamus progenitor cells.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the effect of voluntary exercise on the proliferation and differentiation of hypothalamus progenitor cells in adult rats.
  
  
  METHODS
  Male Wistar rats were divided into voluntary exercise (EX) and sedentary (SE) groups, both of which were further divided into 6 subgroups for observation on days 6, 13, 23, 33, 43 and 53. Bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) was intraperitoneally injected daily for 5 consecutive days after commencing voluntary exercise, and at the specified time points during voluntary exercise, the rats' brains were removed to observe the numbers of BrdU-positive cells in the hypothalamus.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Immunohistochemical analysis showed that the numbers of BrdU-positive cells in the hypothalamus of EX subgroups were significantly greater than those of SE subgroups on days 23, 33, 43 and 53. In EX group, the number of BrdU-positive cells double-stained for a mature neuron marker increased after 43 days of voluntary exercise, which did not occur in SE group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Long-term voluntary exercise can promote the proliferation of neuronal progenitor cells in the hypothalamus and their differentiation into neurons.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, Ningxia Medical University, Yinchuan 750004, China. E-mail: ghlee0404@163.com.
authors.forename: Guanghua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Kentaro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Matsuzki
authors.forename: Yin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Nan
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Shido
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002454:Cell Differentiation; D049109:Cell Proliferation; D007031:Hypothalamus / Q000166:cytology*; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology*; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D013234:Stem Cells / Q000166:cytology*