The Effect of 6 Weeks of Aerobic Training on Neurogenesis and Neurotrophic Factors in the Hippocampus of Young and Middle-Aged Rats

The aim of this study was to find answers to these questions: can exercise increase neurogenesis and does neurotrophic factor that is necessary for neurogenesis increase with training?30 rats were divided into four groups: young control, young training, middle-aged control and middle-aged training. The training was performed with overload principle for 6 weeks and 6 sessions per week. Young rats ran with the speed of 27 m/min. and the middle-aged rats with the speed of 20 m/min. for 20 minutes on the first day. The running time increased 2 minutes every day until it reached 60 minutes per day. Elisa method was used to measure the factors and they were analyzed by Tukey post hoc test.There was no significant difference in weight between young groups (sig=0.979) but the difference was significant between middle-aged groups (sig=0.000). Ki67 in young and middle-aged training groups was significantly more than control group (sig=0.002) and (sig=0.037). Midkine did not have a significant increase in the young training group compared with the young control group (sig=0.134). This factor increased in middle-aged training group but this increase was not significant (sig=0.557). The correlation between ki67 and Midkine was significant (r=0.407) (sig=0.029).Continuous training can increase the neurogenesis in young and middle-aged rats. This type of training may be useful to increase neurogenesis and its essentials (i.e. neurotrophic factors).