EFFECT OF AEROBIC EXERCISE TRAINING AND OZONE THERAPY ON TRF2 AND TERT GENE EXPRESSIONS IN HEART TISSUE OF RATS WITH OSTEOARTHRITIS

Osteoarthritis (OA) is the most common disease of joints caused by the degradation of articular cartilage and subchondral bone. It is unknown whether different therapies exert differential cellular effects. Telomeres and telomerase play a major role in cellular aging with implications for global health. Also, OA may be associated with CVD and reduction in telomeres length. Thus, this study investigated the effect of ozone therapy and aerobic training on telomeres and telomerase expression genes in the heart of rats with knee OA.

In this experimental study, knee OA was induced by the surgical method in rats. OA rats were randomly divided into the OA, OA and ozone therapy (OAO), and OA and aerobic exercise (OAE) groups. Rats in the OAO group received O3 at the concentration of 20μg/ml, once a week for 3 weeks. Rats in the OAE group were trained on rodent treadmill with intensity of 16 m/min, 3 days/week. 48 hours after the intervention, cartilage and heart tissues were isolated and the expression of TRF2 and TERT gene was measured using Real-Time qPCR (RT-qPCR).

OAE significantly increased the expression of TRF2 compared to the OA (p=0.045) group. Also, OAE group had significantly higher expression of TERT compared to the control (p= 0.02) group but no difference was observed between OA and OAO in TRF2 (p=0.303) and TERT (p=0.382) genes expression.

TRF2 and TERT increased after 8 weeks of aerobic exercise compared to the Ozone therapy.