The Effect of Four-weeks Continuous and Interval Exercise Training on Activin-A Muscular Level in Female Mice with Breast Cancer

Up-regulation of Activin-A levels in cancer patients affected by cachexia has been reported. The aim of present study was to investigate the effect of four weeks continuous and interval exercise training on Activin-A levels in muscular tissue of breast cancer bearing female mice. A total of thirty-two 6-8-week-old female Balb/c mice were randomly assigned in four groups, including: control, tumor control, interval training + tumor and continuous training + tumor groups of 8. Interval and continuous exercise training program performed for four weeks, five sessions per week on rodent special treadmill. Forty eight hours after the last exercise session, gastrocnemius muscle tissue was removed and after it was homogenized, Activin A levels were measured using ELISA method in muscular tissue. Tumor volume was also measured with digital caliper and in order to analyze data, the one-way analysis of variance test and Tukey post-hock test were used. Results of the current study showed that Activin-A levels in muscular tissue of continuous training group were significantly lower than tumor control group (p = 0.026). However, no significant difference was found in Active-A levels between the tumor control group and interval training group (p = 0.105). Gastrocnemius muscle weight in healthy control group was significantly higher compared to tumor groups (p < 0.05) and continuous and interval exercise training did not lead to significant changes in gastrocnemius muscle weight (p > 0.05). Moreover, tumor volume in continuous and interval training group was significantly lower than tumor control group (p < 0.001), but no significant difference was observed between continuous and interval training groups (p = 0.681). According to the results current study, it could be argued that exercise training, at least in the short term (four weeks), cannot exert significant effects on muscular tissue of female mice with breast cancer.