Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under CC BY-NC 4.0 license
Authors
1 Department of Exercise Physiology, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran
2 Corresponding Author, Department of Exercise Physiology, Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran.
Abstract
Introduction: The JAK/STAT signaling pathway is an important pathway used by cytokines and its excessive activation can lead to various diseases. This signaling pathway is essential for normal homeostasis. Dysregulation of this pathway contributes to the development of obesity and diabetes. This study aimed to investigate the effect of six weeks of endurance running exercises on the gene expression of the JAK1/STAT3 pathway in the basal ganglia of diabetic rats.
Methods: In this experimental study, 40 male rats were randomly divided into four equal Healthy, Exercise, Diabetes, and Diabetes + Exercise groups. Diabetes was induced by a single intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ, 50 mg/kg body weight). The incremental endurance exercise program was gradually implemented for six weeks, and five sessions per week. The first week started with a speed of 10 m/min for 10 minutes, and by the sixth week, it reached a speed of 18 m/min for 30 minutes. Forty-eight hours after the last exercise session, the rats were anesthetized and the brain tissue was removed from the skull to extract the basal ganglia. The extracted tissue was used to measure gene expression by the qPCR method. One-way ANOVA and LSD post hoc test were used to check the between-group differences. The significance level was considered smaller than 0.05.
Results: Type-1 diabetes induction did not change JAK1/STAT3 gene expression in basal ganglia (P>0.05). The endurance exercise program decreased the gene expression values of JAK1 (P=0.009) and STAT3 (P=0.002) compared to the diabetes group. This decrease had a similar process for both genes.
Conclusion: In the present study, six weeks of endurance running on the treadmill with moderate intensity decreased the gene expression of the JAK1/STAT3 pathway. Therefore, this exercise protocol can be suggested as a non-pharmacological tool without side effects to inhibit this pathway in diabetes to protect basal ganglia neurons.
Keywords