Effects of Aerobic Exercise and Carbon Black Particulates Air Pollution on IL-6 mRNA Expression in the Hippocampus and Frontal Cortex of Male Wistar Rats

The propose of this study was to evaluate the effect of aerobic training and exposure to PM10 carbon black on IL-6 mRNA expression in the hippocampus and frontal cortex of male Wistar rats. Twenty-four adult male Wistar rats (8-10 weeks age) were randomly divided to 4 groups: A: Control (n=6), B: Aerobic training (n=6), C: Exposure to Carbon black (n=6), and D: Aerobic training plus exposure to Carbon black (n=6). In order to exposure the animals to carbon black particles with diameter less than 10 microns was used particle injection device and chamber (Falunak). The rats of air pollution and air pollution-aerobic training groups were exposed to PM10 carbon black for four weeks (five days per week, two hours per day). After that, the rats of air pollution-aerobic training and aerobic training groups were carried out aerobic training program with 50% of own maximum speed for 4 weeks (60 minutes per session). The animals were sacrificed 24 hours after the last session. The mRNA expression of IL-6 were analyzed in hippocampus and frontal cortex tissues by Real time – PCR. In order to determine the significant differences between groups two-way ANOVA test were used. Particulate air pollution resulted in significant increase in IL-6 gene expression in the hippocampus (p=0.007) and frontal cortex of the brain tissue (p=0.010), however, the training had no significant effect on the expression of this gene. Despite the lack of significant effect of training on gene expression of IL-6, the results showed that the expression of this gene in training and training-air pollution groups was lower than air pollution group. So, it seems that training can moderate the neuro-inflammatory effects of air pollution by reduction of IL-6.