The Effect of 12 Weeks of Aerobic Training with or without Dietary Restriction on the Expression Levels of SIRT3, PGC1-α and SOD2 of Soleusmuscle in Male Rats

Recently, synergistic effect of dietary restriction (DR) on the exercise induced adaptations has attracted the attention of researchers. The aim of this research was to evaluate the effect of 12 weeks of dietary restriction with or without aerobic training on the gene expression or mRNA of SIRT3, PGC1-α and SOD2 proteins of soleusmuscle tissue in male rats. This study was conducted as experimental design (animal model) with control groups. Forty 3-month old male rats were randomly divided into four homogenous groups including: 1) Six-month old control (Con; n=9), 2) Dietary restriction (DR; n=9), 3) Exercise training (ET; n=8) and 4- Exercise training + dietary restriction (ET+DR; n=8). After the last exercise session, all animals were sacrificed and their soleusmuscle tissue was removed. Soleusmuscle tissue was analyzed for mRNA expression of SIRT3, PGC1-α and SOD2 using RT-PCR method. Data were analyzed using Two-way ANOVA test and the significant level was set at P<0.05. The results showed the increasing effect of aerobic training on SIRT3, PGC1-α and SOD2 gene expression (P<0.05) while the effect of dietary restriction was significant only on PGC1-α expression (P<0.05). However, additive effect of aerobic training and dietary restriction on SIRT3 and PGC1-α genes expression was significant (P<0.05). The aerobic training reduced the effect of increasing dietary restriction on the SIRT3 expression (P<0.05). Meanwhile, aerobic training and dietary restriction had an interactive effect on expression of PGC1-α protein (P<0.05) but the effect of aerobic training and dietary restriction in interaction with each other on SOD2 gene expression was not significant (P<0.05). Overall, it seems that the use of extreme dietary restriction along with aerobic training is likely to suppress the processes related to cell longevity.