The effects of one period submaximal swimming exercise on STAT3 gene expression in lungs of wistar rats following the injection of carcinogen NNK

It is believed that sports programs have minimal impact on pathological changes in the lung tissue exposed to smoking carcinogens. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of twelve weeks submaximal swimming exercise on the expression of STAT3 in lung tissue of rats following the exposure to the carcinogen NNK.

Forty-six Wistar rats (with the average weight of 105.84 ± 27.93g) were divided into five groups: A) exercise (E), B) exercise-NNK (EN), C) NNK (N), D) control (C) and E) Vehicle group (V) group. Exercise groups completed swimming submaximal exercises for twelve weeks, five days per week (Water flow 4-10 L/min, 25-60min). Rats in Vehicle group and NNK treatment group were respectively administered subcutaneous injections of distilled water and NNK (12.5mg/kg, once a week, 12 weeks). 48 hours after the last exercise, rats died and samples of their lung tissue were collected and stored in -70ᵒ.  STAT3 expressions were measured by Real time PCR-ABI method. One-way analysis of variance and Tukey post hoc test (P≤0.05) were used for data analysis.

There was a significant increase (p≤0.05) in the NNK group compared to E (P=0.001) and EN (P=0.002) groups in the STAT3 gene expression while there was no significant difference (P>0.05) between exercise groups with the control and saline groups.

It seems that submaximal training can be used as a complementary therapy method along with other methods to prevent main factors leading to tumors.