The effect of swimming exercise on the Matrix mettaloproteinase 2 activity and tumor necrosis factor-α levels of liver tissue in Alloxan-induced diabetic rats

liver disease is highly prevalent in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and exercise training is effective in preventing and treating diabetes-induced hepatic injury. Therefore, the aim of this study was to assess the effect of chronic swimming exercise on the hepatic matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) activity and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) level of liver tissue in alloxan-induced diabetic rats.
In this study, 28 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 groups (7 rats per group) of control, diabetes, exercise, and diabetes-exercise. Diabetes was induced by alloxan (90 mg/kg, i.p.). The animals exercised by swimming training at 5 min to 30 min per day, five days a week over 8 weeks. The rats were killed 48 h after the last treatments and liver MMP-2 and TNF-α level were evaluated by zymography and ELISA methods. One-way analysis of variance was used for data analysis.
Findings showed that the diabetes significantly increases MMP-2 activity and TNF-α level in animals (p˂0.05). In addition, 8 weeks swimming training were associated with a significant decrease of TNF-α level and MMP-2 activity in the liver tissue of diabetic rats (p˂0.05).
It seems that regular swimming training can partially prevent diabetes-induced liver injury via decreasing MMP-2 activity and TNF-α level in diabetic rats.