Effect of 6-Week Endurance Training on BDNF Expression in Motor Root of Spinal Cord in Rats with Diabetic Neuropathy

Background and Etiology of diabetic neuropathy is unclear, however, the accumulation of final products of glycation, vascular dysfunction, oxidative stress, and changes in neurotrophic support are considered as important factors in the genesis of this disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of a 6-week endurance training program on gene expression of Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF) in the Sciatic nerve motor roots of rats with diabetic neuropathy. Twenty eight adult male Wistar rats in the body mass range of 271±11.2 gr, were randomly assigned into four groups: diabetic control, diabetic training, healthy control, and healthy training. For inducing diabetic neuropathy, Streptozotocin (45 mg/kg, ip body wt.) was injected after twelve hours of food deprivation. Two weeks later, the endurance training protocol was performed for six weeks and 24hr after the last training session, the rats were sacrificed and spinal cords were processed for histological examination. Real-Time PCR was used for BDNF expression. For data Analysis, two-way ANOVA and LSD post hoc test were applied. Data indicate that diabetes decreased BDNF expression in Sciatic nerve motor roots (P=0.05). However, 6 weeks of endurance training could partly compensate the BDNF expression decrease induced by diabetic neuropathy (P=0.05). However, this intervention could not return the BDNF expression level to that of the healthy control group (P=0.01). This study showed that diabetes can decrease BDNF expression in Sciatic nerve motor roots. But this decrease could somewhat be improved by endurance training. Our study supports the hypothesis that neurotrophic support decreases in diabetic neuropathy.