Long-term treadmill exercise-induced neuroplasticity and associated memory recovery of streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats: An experimenter blind, randomized controlled study
Affiliations: [a] Department of Physical Therapy, College of Health Sciences, Korea University, Seoul, Republic of Korea | [b] Department of Physical Therapy, Graduate School of Rehabilitation Science, Yonsei University, Kangwon-do, Republic of Korea | [c] Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, Republic of Korea
Correspondence:
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Address for correspondence: Joshua (Sung) H. You, PT, PhD, Department of Physical Therapy, Graduate School of Rehabilitation Science, Yonsei University, Director of Center for Movement Soultions; Virtual Reality Education & Research, 234 Heoungup-Myon, MaeJi-Ri, Wonju City, Kangwon-do, Republic of Korea 220-710. Tel.: +82 33 760 2476; Fax: +82 33 760 2496; E-mail: neurorehab@yonsei.ac.kr or neurorehab1@yahoo.com
Abstract: We investigated a long-term exercise-induced neuroplasticity and spatial memory recovery in 15 rats in a treadmill as follows: normal control rats (NC), streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic control rats (DC), and STZ-induced diabetic rats exercising in a treadmill (DE). As per the DE group, the running exercise in a treadmill was administered for 30 minutes a day for 6 weeks. Neuronal immediate-early gene (IEG) expression (c-Fos) in the hippocampus and radial arm maze (RAM) tests were measured and revealed that the c-Fos levels in DE were significantly higher than those in NC and DC (p < 0.05). Behavioral data analysis indicated that spatial memory performance scores, obtained from the RAM test, were significantly different among the three groups (p < 0.05). The memory scores of NC and DE were higher than those of DC (p < 0.05). These findings suggest that exercising in the treadmill increased neuronal immediate-early gene expression associated with neuroplasticity, thereby improving spatial memory. This is the first experimental evidence in literature that supports the efficacy of exercise-induced neuroplasticity and spatial motor memory in diabetes care.
