The effect of water aerobic exercise on the expression of Apaf-1, cytochrome C and Caspase-9 genes of cardiomyocyte tissue in male rats poisoned with hydrogen peroxide

The cardiovascular disease is due to the some disorders in the cell death as the form of abnormal increased or decreased. Exercise is a strong physiological stimulus that directly or indirectly affects the process of apoptosis by means of a number of extracellular and intracellular signaling pathways. The aim of this study was to examine the effect of aerobic exercise in water on the genes expression of Apaf-1, cytochrome C and caspase-9 in heart tissue of rats which were injected with hydrogen peroxide.

Twenty four male Wistar rats with an approximate weight of 190±10 grams were randomly divided into four groups including hydrogen peroxide, hydrogen peroxide+training, sham and control groups. The aerobic exercise protocol were performed with duration of 60 minutes in each session, six weeks and five days per week in water. All groups, except the control and sham groups, were injected intraperitoneally with one mill mole of hydrogen peroxide. Forty eight hours after the last training session with 10 to 12 hours of fasting, the rats were anesthetized with CO2 gas and their tissues were dissected. In order to measure genes expression using the Real Time-PCR method, one-way analysis of variance and Scheffe’s post hoc tests were applied for data analysis at significance level of p≤0.05.

The results indicated that intraperitoneal injection of hydrogen peroxide increased the genes expression of the internal apoptotic pathway compared to the sham and control groups (p=0.0001); while by adding six weeks of aerobic exercise in water, genes expression of Apaf-1, cytochrome C, and caspase-9 in the hydrogen peroxide+training group was significantly decreased compared to the hydrogen peroxide group (p=0001).

It appears that aerobic exercise in water reduces the undesirable effects of apoptosis of heart tissue, less cytopathic and ultimately, it causes health of the body.