The Effect of Interval Training on the Expression of Tumor Suppressor Gene, Systemic Inflammation, and Tumor Volume in Breast Cancer–Bearing BALB/c Mice

E-cadherin is expressed in most normal epithelial tissues. Loss of E-cadherin can cause dedifferentiation and invasiveness in human carcinomas, leading E-cadherin to be classified as a tumor suppressor. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of interval training on the expression of tumor suppressor gene E-cadherin in breast cancer-bearing BALB/c mice.

  Twenty female BALB/c mice were purchased from the Pasteur Institute and transferred to the Animal Laboratory of Tarbiat Modares University and randomly divided into four groups of training-cancer-rest, training-cancer-training, rest-cancer-rest, and rest-cancer-training. Cancer was induced by subcutaneous injection of 4T1 cell line. The mice performed an average-intensity interval training for 10 weeks, 5 days per week. Forty-eight hours after the last exercise session, the mice were sacrificed to measure the research variables. Gene expression was investigated using real-time PCR. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to determine the statistical differences between groups.

There was a significant difference in the E-cadherin gene expression between the training-cancer-training and rest-cancer-rest groups (p = 0.03). This difference was also observed between the training-cancer-training and training-cancer-rest groups (p = 0.04).

Interval exercise training may influence the expression of major tumor suppressor genes and systemic inflammation involved in the development of metastasis and even reverse this process.