Acute and Chronic Effects of Endurance Training on CGRP Gene Expression in The Brain, CSF, And Serum of Male Wistar Rats

The study aimed to investigate the acute and chronic effects of endurance training on calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) in the brain, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), and serum in male Wistar rats. Frothy animals were equally divided into four groups including control, acute, trained chronic, and trained acute. The acute group performed only one endurance exercise session, trained acute performed a single exercise session following a twelve-week endurance training, and trained chronic performed twelve-week of endurance training. CSF was collected from the cisterna magena and various parts of the brain were extracted. CSF and serum concentration of CGRP and its gene expression were measured by ELISA and Real Time-PCR technique, respectively. Statistical test of One-way ANOVA was used for data analysis. Compared with control group, CGRP concentration in CSF (acute: P=0.006; trained acute: P=0.008) and serum (acute: P=0.009; trained acute: P=0.007) increased significantly. CGRP gene expression increased only in the cortex of the acute (P = 0.007) and trained acute (P = 0.006) in comparison to control group; Compared with the acute group, CGRP gene expression increased in the cortex of the trained acute group (P = 0.018). The chronic effect of exercise did not appear in any of research variables in trained chronic group. In conclusion, CGRP increment in CSF and serum during endurance exercise is likely due to its enhanced expression in the cortex. In addition, resting values of CSF and serum CGRP are not affected by long-term endurance exercise; however, they are subjected to exercise response to adaptation.