Interactive Effect of Aerobic Training and Curcumin Supplementation on Mitochondrial Cardiomyocyte Nrf1 and Nrf2 Gene Expression in Myocardial infraction Male Rat Model

The aim of this study was to investigate the interactive effect of aerobic training and curcumin supplementation on  mitochondrial NRF-1 and NRF-2 gene expression of cardiomyocytes in infarction model male rats.

32 male rats were randomly divided into four groups: control, aerobic training, supplementation, and aerobic training + supplementation.  The training  and training + supplementation groups participated in an aerobic training program for 8 weeks. The training was performed on an intelligent animal electronic treadmill 5 days a week, and at this time the control and supplementation  groups did not have an training program. Also, curcumin supplementation was given to the supplementation and training + supplementation groups five days a week by gavage.  After surgery, the expression of NRF-1 and NRF-2  genes in cardiomyocytes was avaluated using real-time PCR method. Shapiro-Wilk and two-way analysis of variance were used for the analysis of data.

Both training and curcumin supplementation variables significantly increased the expression of NRF-1 and NRF-2 in cardiomyocytes.  The results also showed that there is a positive and significant interaction between two variables, so that the increase in expression of NRF-1 and NRF-2 genes in the training + supplement group was more than the other groups.

 It seems that both training and curcumin supplementation alone and in interaction with each other can increase the gene expression of some factors that stimulate mitochondrial biogenesis in cardiomyocytes of male rats with myocardial infarction.