The Effect of 4 Weeks of Aerobic Exercise on Cognitive Impairment and Motor Dysfunction in Streptozotocin-Induced Diabetic Male Rats

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of 4 weeks of aerobic exercise on cognitive impairments and motor dysfunction in diabetic male rats. 24 adult male Wistar rats (weight 275±9.9 g, age 13 weeks) were purchased and randomly divided into three groups: sham, diabetic and diabetic exercise. Diabetes was induced with intraperitoneal injection of one dose of streptozotocin (STZ) (60ml/kg). The diabetes criterion was the blood glucose level higher than 250 mg/dl. One week after the induction of diabetes, the rats in exercise group ran on a treadmill 5 days a week for 4 weeks (20-30 min. at 10-18 m/min). The passive avoidance memory test was used to assess the memory impairments. Inclined plane and barfix tests were used to assess motor function. Results showed that the exercise significantly reduced the diabetic-induced impairment in the short-term memory in passive avoidance memory test (P=0.0001) and increased the motor function in diabetic rats in inclined plane (P=0.017) and barfix (P=0.0001) tests. In general, it can be stated that 4 weeks of aerobic exercise improves cognitive impairments and motor dysfunction in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats.