Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under CC BY-NC 4.0 license

Authors

Department of Physiology, Faculty of Physical Education & Sport Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 8 weeks of high intensity interval training (HIIT) on the expression of PGC-1α and VEGF genes in myocardial muscle of male healthy rats. 12 male Wistar rats were divided into control and exercise (high intensity training) groups. The exercise group performed training including running on the treadmill for 4 min. with 90-100% VO2max intensity for 8 weeks and 5 sessions per week while the control group exercised on the treadmill for 15 min. with the speed of 2 m/min. The rats were sacrificed the day after the last session and the samples were taken to the laboratory to extract RNA. PGC-1α and VEGF gene expressions in exercise group were 1.2 times (P=0.79) and 1.4 times (P=0.29) more than the control group. The results indicated an insignificant increase of expression of PGC-1α and VEGF genes in myocardial muscle following 8 weeks of high intensity interval training.

Keywords

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