Effect of a period of swimming exercise on Sirt1 and FoxO3a genes expression in lung tissue of wistar rats

Physical activity and exercise along with nutrition and hygiene, are major factors in prevention of diseases. Due to increase in pulmonary disease prevalence in recent decades and the role of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of these diseases, the purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a period swimming exercise on Sirtuin 1 (Sirt1) and Forkhead box O3 (FoxO3a) genes expression in lung tissue of wistar rats.
Twenty wistar rats with the weight of 102 ± 23 g randomly divided into two groups: exercise (n=10) and control (n=10). The exercise protocol included three months of swimming exercise (5 times per week) which begun from 25 minutes in the first week (4 liters per minute) and reached to 60 minutes (10 liters per minute) in the final week. Real time- PCR method was used to assess the genes expression of Sirt1 and FoxO3a in lung tissue. Kolmogorov-Smirnov test was used to test the normality and Independent t test was used to compare the group (α