The Effect of High Intensity Interval Training and Moderate-Intensity Continuous Training on PGC1α and VEGF in Heart Muscle of Male Wistar Rats

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of high intensity interval training (HIIT) and moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) on the gene expression of PGC1α and VEGF in the cardiac muscle tissue of male rats. Twenty-four male Wistar rats randomly assigned to four groups including: basic control (CO) (n=6), 8 weeks control without exercise (CO8w) (n=6), HIIT (n=6), and MICT (n=6). After 2 weeks of familiarization on the treadmill, the rats in experimental groups run 5 times a week for 8 weeks. The speed of MICT protocol was 15 to 30 meters per minute, and it`s duration was about 15 to 60 minutes. The speed of HIIT protocol was 28 to 55 meters per minute and total duration was 15 to 23 minutes. Rats were sacrificed 48 hours after last training session, and the amount of gene expression was measured by Real-Time PCR technique. Data were analysis by ANOVA and Tukey post hoc test with a P-value of less than 0.05. The results illustrated that 8 weeks of both MICT and HIIT training would lead to significantly increases in PGC1α gene expression in cardiac muscle (P=0.001). However, both of these training methods would not result in significantly increase in VEGF gene expression in cardiac muscle of rats (P=0.186). It seems that both of HIIT and MICT training methods facilities and activated upstream signaling in angiogenesis process (PGC1α) in heart muscle of rats, however, VEGF that is the essential and last component of this adaptation wasn’t significantly increase.