title: Exercise preconditioning improves behavioral functions following transient cerebral ischemia induced by 4-vessel occlusion (4-VO) in rats.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  There is evidence that exercise decreases ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats. Since behavioral deficits are the main outcome in patients after stroke, our study was designed to investigate whether exercise preconditioning improves the acute behavioral functions and also brain inflammatory injury following cerebral ischemia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Male rats weighing 250-300 g were randomly allocated into five experimental groups. Exercise was performed on a treadmill 30min/day for 3 weeks. Ischemia was induced by 4-vessel occlusion method. Recognition memory was assessed by novel object recognition task (NORT) and step-through passive avoidance task. Sensorimotor function and motor movements were evaluated by adhesive removal test and ledged beam-walking test, respectively. Brain inflammatory injury was evaluated by histological assessment.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In NORT, the discrimination ratio was decreased after ischemia (P < 0.05) and exercise preconditioning improved it in ischemic animals. In the passive avoidance test, a significant reduction in response latency was observed in the ischemic group. Exercise preconditioning significantly decreased the response latency in the ischemic rats (P < 0.001). In the adhesive removal test, latency to touch and remove the sticky labels from forepaw was increased following induction of ischemia (all P < 0.001) and exercise preconditioning decreased these indices compared to the ischemic group (all P < 0.001). In the ledged beam-walking test, the slip ratio was increased following ischemia (P < 0.05).  In the ischemia group, marked neuronal injury in hippocampus was observed. These neuropathological changes were attenuated by exercise preconditioning (P < 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our results showed that exercise preconditioning improves behavioral functions and maintains more viable cells in the dorsal hippocampus of the ischemic brain.
authors: Physiology-Pharmacology Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran. ashamsi@rums.ac.ir; alishamsy@gmail.com.
authors: Mahshid
authors: M
authors: Tahamtan
authors: Physiology-Pharmacology Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran.
authors: Mohammad
authors: M
authors: Allahtavakoli
authors: Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Shahid Bahonar University of Kerman, Kerman, Iran.
authors: Mehdi
authors: M
authors: Abbasnejad
authors: Physiology-Pharmacology Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran.
authors: Ali
authors: A
authors: Roohbakhsh
authors: Department of Anatomy, School of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran.
authors: Zahra
authors: Z
authors: Taghipour
authors: Department of Anatomy, School of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran.
authors: Mohsen
authors: M
authors: Taghavi
authors: Department of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran.
authors: Hassan
authors: H
authors: Khodadadi
authors: Physiology-Pharmacology Research Center, Rafsanjan University of Medical Sciences, Rafsanjan, Iran.
authors: Ali
authors: A
authors: Shamsizadeh
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001362:Avoidance Learning / Q000502:physiology; D001522:Behavior, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D054022:Cerebrum / Q000098:blood supply; D004660:Encephalitis / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D005106:Exploratory Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000473:pathology; D002546:Ischemic Attack, Transient / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D009474:Neurons / Q000473:pathology; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D011597:Psychomotor Performance; D011897:Random Allocation; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D011930:Reaction Time; D021641:Recognition, Psychology / Q000502:physiology