Effects of Six Weeks High-Intensity Interval Training on TGF-b1 and SMAD7 Genes Expression in the Kidney Tissue of Elderly Diabetic Male Wistar Rats

Diabetic nephropathy is a common complication in the patients with diabetes. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of six weeks of high-intensity interval training on TGF-b1 and SMAD7 gene expression in kidney tissue of elderly diabetic male Wistar rats.

In this study, 36 male 21-month old Wistar rats, with the weight of 340 to 390 grams were randomly divided into three groups: healthy control, diabetes, and diabetes- training. The training group, performed high-intensity interval training five times per week for six weeks, healthy and diabetic control groups have not done any exercises. 24 hours after the last training session, rats were sacrificed and kidney tissues were extracted to examine TGF-b1 and SMAD7 genes expression by Real-Time PCR method. To determine the difference among the groups, one-way analysis of variance with Tukeys Post hoc test was used at the significant level of P<0.05. Statistical analysis was done by SPSS software version 16.

The results showed that six weeks of high intensity interval training led to a significant decrease in TGF-b1 gene expression in kidney tissue compared to the diabetic group (P=0.001). In addition, a significant increase in SMAD7 gene expression in kidney tissue was observed in the diabetes- training group compared to the diabetes group (P=0.008).

According to the findings of the present study, it seems that high-intensity interval training can probably exert protective effects against nephropathy by reducing the expression of the TGF-b1gene and increasing the expression of the SMAD7 gene in kidney tissue. Because this research was conducted on elderly diabetic rats, it is suggested to check and confirm this training method in diabetic human models.