Effect of 8 Weeks of Aerobic Exercise With Cinnamon Extract Supplementation on Arginase and p38 MAPK Levels of Soleus Muscle in Diabetic Rats

Recently, there has been a great interest in combined therapies in the treatment of most diseases. Emerging evidence suggests that the arginase enzyme plays a key role in the complications of diabetes; modulation of this enzyme may help reduce the complications of diabetes. This study aims to evaluate the effect of 8 weeks of aerobic exercise with cinnamon extract supplementation on arginase and P38 MAPK levels in soleus muscle of rats with type 2 diabetes.

In this study, 35 eight-week-old male Wistar rats (weighted 200-250 g) were randomly divided into five groups: Control (C), diabetes (D), diabetes + supplement (DS), diabetes + exercise (DE) and diabetes + exercise + supplement (DES). The aerobic exercise was progressively performed for 8 weeks at five sessions per week. The rats in the DS and DES groups received 200 mg/kg of hydroalcoholic cinnamon extract daily by gavage, while those in groups C and DE received water during this period. Forty-eight hours after the intervention, soleus muscle was isolated and enzyme levels were measured. To analyze the collected data, one-way analysis of variance was used and Pearson correlation test was used to examine the relationships between the study variables, considering a significance level of P<0.05.

The level of arginase enzyme in group D (1.17±0.05) was significantly higher than in group C (0.53±0.08), and its level in group DES (0.67±0.09) was significantly lower than in group D. There was no significant difference in p38 MAPK protein level between any groups. There was a significant positive correlation between blood glucose and arginase enzyme levels.

The combination of aerobic exercise with hydroalcoholic cinnamon extract supplementation can reduce the level of arginase enzyme. Since many complications of diabetes are associated with an increase in the arginase enzyme level, this intervention can be helpful. The findings of this study about the positive effects of aerobic exercise and cinnamon on the complications of diabetes can pave the way for clinical trials.