Background: Cerebral ischemia/reperfusion causes structural and functional damage in the hippocampus. exercise pre-conditioning can be an effective way to prevent or reduce the risk of stroke. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of 8 weeks of Pre-conditioning exercise on treadmill on diminution of the neurons of CA1 region of hippocampus and expression of TNF-α protein following cerebral ischemia/ reperfusion in male rats.
Materials and Methods: Twenty and four male Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups of sham, training, ischemia and ischemia+ training. The rats in training group were trained to run on a treadmill 5 days a week, for 8 weeks before induction of ischemia. Ischemia was induced by blocking both common carotid arteries for 45 minutes. Hematoxylin and eosinophil (H&E) staining and immunohistochemical method were used to neuronal death, and protein expression respectively.
Results: The number of apoptosis neurons in the CA1 area were significantly increased in the ischemia group, compared with the sham and training group (p<0.05). Also, in the ischemia+ training group number of cell death and Expression of TNF-α were significantly lower than ischemia group. (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Regarding on the results, it seems that exercise pre-conditioning on treadmill, as a neuroprotective stimulant, would have protective effects against cell death and inflammation.
