Effect of aerobic training before and after induction of Alzheimer on interleukin-1ß and CREB gene expression in the hippocampus of Wistar male rats

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive disorder of the nervous system. Inflammation plays an important role in neurological dysfunction and loss of neuronal cells in Alzheimer’s disease. Previous studies have shown that cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) activity decreases with beta amyloid and inflammation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of aerobic training before and after induction of Alzheimer on interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and CREB gene expression of Wistar male rats.

The number of 115 male adult rats (eight-week old) with an average weight of 250±17.20 grams in the pre-Alzheimer’s stage were randomly divided into two equal resting (55 heads) and exercise (55 heads) groups. After four weeks and after induction of Alzheimer’s disease, the rats of each group were divided into three subgroups including Amyloid injection, injecting the placebo, and without injection groups. Before the start of the study, animals were killed (5 heads in each group) and their hippocampus removed after four weeks of training (before and after Alzheimer’s induction). IL-1β and CREB expression were measured by Real Time-PCR method and data were analyzed in two stages before and after Alzheimer’s induction with one way- analysis of variance and least significant difference (LSD) tests at the significant level of p≤0.05.

Both in the pre and post-Alzheimer’s stages, IL-1β and CREB expression decreased and increased significantly (p<0.05) in the training group compared to the resting group, respectively.

Aerobic exercise can increase of CREB expression and reduction of inflammation before and after Alzheimer’s induction, and it probably contributes to hippocampal plasticity in this way and has cognitive or functional benefits.