The Effect of an Aerobic Exercise Period on Levels of Depression and Interleukin-6 Cytokine During Pregnancy and Postpartum in NMRI Mice

Depression during pregnancy is a common mental disorder that has manyside effects, including a disorder of the immune system. Recently, the available evidence supports theuse of aerobic exercise interventions in reducing depressive symptoms in mothers. The aim of this studywas to investigate the effect of an aerobic exercise period on levels of depression and Interleukin-6 (IL-6)concentration during pregnancy and postpartum in NMRI female mice.

In this experimental and baseline study, 40 female NMRI mice with an approximate age of 80-90 days and a weight of 22-25 g were divided into four groups: Non Exercise in Pregnancy, Non Exercisein Postpartum, Exercise in Pregnancy, Exercise in Postpartum. After seeing the vaginal plaque and confirmingthe day of pregnancy of the animals, two running wheels were placed inside the cage of eachpregnant animal for aerobic activity. In order to induce depression during pregnancy and postpartum,pregnant mice from day 5 to 19 of pregnancy were exposed to stress for three sessions a day, and toassess depression levels, the rate of delay in access to food after 24 hours of food deprivation was measuredin seconds. At the end of the protocol, blood samples were taken from the heart to assess IL-6 andthe data were analyzed using one-way Analysis of variance (ANOVA) .

According to the findings of this study, moderate and low intensity aerobic exercise duringpregnancy as well as in the postpartum period led to a significant decrease in levels of depression(P<0.05) and concentration of IL-6 as an inflammatory cytokine in trained mice compared to sedentarymice (P<0.05).

This results of the present study showed, the aerobic activity used was able to reduce the levelsof depression and the concentration of inflammatory factor IL-6 during pregnancy and postpartum.Therefore, low-intensity aerobic activity can probably be used as a non-pharmacological interventionduring this period to reduce depressive symptoms and improve immune function.