The Effects of Eight Weeks of Aerobic Training and Green Tea Extract Consumption on Some Angiogenesis and Metastasis Markers in Prostate Cancer-Induced Rats

There are promising data that exercise training and dietary polyphenols intake may alter the tumor microenvironment to facilitate conventional treatment.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of eight weeks of aerobic training (AT) and green tea extract (GTE) consumption on matrix metalloproteinases-2 and -9 (MMP-2/-9) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in normal and prostate cancer tissue of rats.

Ninety Wistar rats were assigned to two healthy and cancer groups, then the healthy group was divided into four subgroups, including healthy control (Ctr), healthy AT (treadmill exercise for 5 days/week), healthy GTE (three times of week for eight weeks by gavage) and healthy AT + GTE, and after tumor induction, the cancer group was divided into five subgroups, including cancer control (CaCtr), cancer AT (CaAT), cancer GTE (CaGTE), cancer AT + GTE and sham groups.

The results showed that there was no significant difference between healthy and CaCtr groups in the MMP-2 levels (P = 0.07), but MMP-2 levels in the CaAT group were lower than the healthy AT (P = 0.01). No significant changes were found in the levels of MMP-9 and VEGF between the healthy and cancer groups (P = 0.23 and P = 0.08, respectively).

The present study demonstrated that low to moderate-intensity aerobic training and treatment with a low dose of green tea extract did not change angiogenesis and metastasis markers. These results pave the way for further researches on modulation approaches for tumor metastasis and vascularization in responses to exercise training and antioxidant supplementation