The Effects of Endurance Training on Gene Expression of VEGF and VEGFR2 of Cardiac Tissue in Type 2 Diabetic Male Wistar

Type 2 diabetes exerts an anti-angiogenesis effects on the cardiac tissue. The aim of present study was to investigate the effects of endurance training on gene expression of VEGF and VEGFR2 of cardiac tissue in type 2 diabetic male wistar rats. 36 male wistar rats were randomly divided into three groups, Diabetic Endurance Training (DET), Diabetic Control (DC) and Healthy Control (HC). Type 2 diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection of STZ. The endurance training included 10 weeks, 5 sessions per week running at speed of 27 m/min and intensity of 75% VO2max for 20-30min in 1st week and reached to 27 m/min and intensity of 75% VO2max for 60 min/day in 10th weeks. The gene expression of VEGF and VEGFR2 were examined by Real-Time PCR AND Western Blotting. Findings: The results of Real-Time PCR showed that the endurance training caused increase in VEGF mRNA (p<0.05) and VEGFR2 mRNA (p<0.05) compared to DC group. The results of Western Blotting also indicated that the endurance training induced increase in VEGF protein expression (p<0.05) compared to DC group and there was no significant change in expression of VEGFR2 protein (p>0.05). Type 2 diabetes impairs the angiogenesis process in diabetic cardiac. It appears that endurance training has positive impact on angiogenesis and it can cause the improvement of diabetic cardiac.