The Effect of Aerobic Exercise and Ethanol Consumption on Nrf2 Gene Expression in Heart Tissue and Some Antioxidant Indices in Male Rat

There have been limited studies on the effect of the combination of aerobic exercise and alcohol consumption on regulators of antioxidant defense systems, especially erythroid nuclear factor 2 associated with factor 2 (Nrf2) in heart muscle.The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of eight weeks of aerobic exercise with ethanol consumption on Nrf2 gene expression in heart tissue and antioxidant parameters of plasma in male rats. A number of 32 rats with a weighing average of 230 ± 6 g were divided into four groups control, aerobic exercise, ethanol 20% at a dose of 4 g/kgbw, and ethanol+ aerobic exercise. At the end of the period, levels of Nrf2 gene expression and total capacity antioxidant and malondialdehyde were evaluated. Data were analyzed by two-way ANOVA at the significant level of p≤0.05.The results showed that aerobic exercise had a significant effect on Nrf2 gene expression (P=0.0068).The results showed no significant effect of ethanol consumption (P=0.312) and interaction effect between aerobic exercise and ethanol consumption (P=0.237) on Nrf2 gene expression. Aerobic exercise significantly increased the expression of Nrf2 gene in the aerobic exercise and ethanol+ aerobic exercise groups compared to the control. Ethanol consumption significantly reduced TCA and increased MDA levels compared to other groups.The findings showed that ethanol consumption decreased and increased plasma levels of TAC and MDA, respectively. In contrast, aerobic exercise through increasing TAC levels and increase Nrf2 gene expression leads to a decrease in the oxidative damage caused by ethanol consumption.