Effect of ten-week aerobic exercise and consumption of sofflower seed extract on PTEN gene expression and serum creatinine levels after consumption of dexamethasone in male rats

Nowadays, due to poor nutrition, sedentary lifestyle and side effects of medicine use, prevalence of kidney injury and disease are observed. Regular exercise and some herbal medicine may influence on recovering from such illnesses. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effect of ten-week aerobic exercise and consumption of safflower seed extract (500 mg/kg of body weight) on PTEN gene expression and serum creatinine levels after consuming Dexamethasone in male rats. 25 Wistar male rats (371±32 gr) were randomly divided into five groups including control, dexamethasone, dexamethasone+safflower, dexamethasone+aerobic exercise, dexamethasone+safflower+aerobic exercise groups. Kidney injury was induced by subcutaneous injection of dexamethasone (8 gr /kg of body weight) for 6 days. Exercise protocol, including treadmill running, started at 15 m/min for 10 minutes and increased by the end of the third week, reaching a maximum of 28 m/min for 60 minutes 5 days a week. By the end of the tenth week, the intensity and duration of the exercises remained unchanged. Creatinine level had a significant reduction in dexamethasone+exercise group compared to dexamethasone group (P=0.047); while it's level had no significant difference in dexamethasone+safflower and dexamethasone+safflower+aerobic exercise compared to dexamethasone group. PTEN gene expression in therapeutic intervention groups had an insignificant change compared to dexamethasone group. Results of the present study indicate that 10 weeks of aerobic exercise and consumption of safflower seed extract could improve kidney injury caused by dexamethasone. This effect seems to be through other mechanisms that have not been investigated in this study.