Effects of Two Months of High Intensity Interval Training and Caffeine Supplementation on the Expression of Beclin-1 and Bcl-2 Proteins in the Myocardium of Type 2 Male Diabetic Rats

Inhibitory and activating mechanisms of interventions such as high intensity interval training and caffeine administration on major pathways of programmed cell death (apoptosis and autophagy) are not well understood. The aim of present study was to evaluate the effects of high-intensity interval training along with caffeine administration on Beclin-1 and Bcl-2 proteins expression in myocardium muscle of type 2 diabetic male rats.

In the present experimental study, 50 male white Wistar rats with an age range of 2-3 months were randomly divided into 5 groups of 10 rats in each group: Healthy control (C), Diabetic control (D), Diabetic with Training (D+T), Diabetic with Caffeine treatment (D+CA), Diabetic with Training and Caffeine treatment (D+T+CA). Western blot analysis was used to evaluate the cardiac muscle proteins (Bcl-2/Beclin-1).

The protein expression level of Beclin-1 was more than the C group, in D group; 201%, D+CA group; 215% and in D+CA+T group; 199% in compared to B-Actin (P=0.001). The Bcl-2 protein expression level in the experimental groups were significantly lower in comparison to the C group (P=0.001, F=73.83). As the expression level of this protein was significantly lower at around 37% in the D group compared to the C group (P=0.001). Whereas the Bcl-2 protein expression levels was significantly lower in the D+CA group and D+T+CA group compared to the C group at about 64 and 70 percent, respectively (P=0.001).

The results indicate that performed high-intensity interval training is effective in modulating the overexpression of Beclin-1 autophagic index and improving expression of Bcl-2 anti-apoptotic index. However, caffeine supplementation alone and along with high-intensity interval training were not effective in modulating of autophagic protein and improving anti-apoptotic protein.