title: Treadmill exercise alleviates short-term memory impairment in 6-hydroxydopamine-induced Parkinson's rats.
abstract: Progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in substantia nigra is a key pathogenesis of Parkinson's disease. In the present study, we investigated the effects of treadmill exercise on short-term memory, apoptotic dopaminergic neuronal cell death and fiber loss in the nigrostriatum, and cell proliferation in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of Parkinson's rats. Parkinson's rats were made by injection of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA) into the striatum using stereotaxic instrument. Four weeks after 6-OHDA injection, the rats in the 6-OHDA-injection group exhibited significant rotational asymmetry following apomorphine challenge. The rats in the exercise groups were put on the treadmill to run for 30 min once a day for 14 consecutive days starting 4 weeks after 6-OHDA injection. In the present results, extensive degeneration of the dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra with loss of dopaminergic fibers in the striatum were produced in the rats without treadmill running, which resulted in short-term memory impairment. However, the rats performing treadmill running for 2 weeks alleviated nigrostriatal dopaminergic cell loss and alleviated short-term memory impairment with increasing cell proliferation in the hippocampal dentate gyrus of Parkinson's rats. The present results show that treadmill exercise may provide therapeutic value for the Parkinson's disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Korea ; Department of Physical Education, College of Education, Seoul National University, Seoul, Korea.
authors.forename: Han-Sam
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Cho
authors.forename: Mal-Soon
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Shin
authors.forename: Wook
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Tae-Won
authors.initials: TW
authors.lastname: Jun
authors.forename: Baek-Vin
authors.initials: BV
authors.lastname: Lim
authors.forename: Young-Pyo
authors.initials: YP
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Chang-Ju
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: 6-Hydroxydopamine; Apoptosis; Cell proliferation; Parkinson’s rats; Treadmill exercise