The Effect of Aerobic Training and Eugenol Supplementation on the Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor and Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase Expression in the Skeletal Muscle of Male Rats Poisoned With Chlorpyrifos

 Chlorpyrifos (CPF) is an insecticide and has a wide range of applications in the world. The purpose of this research was to investigate the effect of 4-week aerobic exercise and eugenol supplementation on the brain-derived neurotrophic factor/phosphoinositide 3-kinase (BDNF/PI3K) pathway on the skeletal muscle of male rats poisoned with CPF.

 Overall, 12-week-old female rats were used in this experimental research. The rats were randomly divided into 7 groups (8 rats in each group), including healthy control, toxic control, poison solvent, corn oil solvent, poisoned+eugenol, poisoned+aerobic exercise, and poisoned+aerobic exercise+eugenol. Moderate training in the range of 50%-60% VO2max, including 5 training sessions per week (treadmill). Poisoning was performed with CPF poison with a dose of 3 mg/kg. The dose of eugenol was determined to be 250 mg/kg. Finally, a one-way analysis of variance and Tukey’s post hoc test were employed to check the difference between groups.

 The expression of PI3K and BDNF in the poisoned control group was lower than that in the healthy control group (P=0.049 and P=0.001, respectively). In addition, the expression of PI3K and BDNF was higher in the poisoned+eugenol+exercise group compared to the poisoned control group (P=0.009 and P=0.03, respectively). The corn solvent group also had a higher PI3K and BDNF expression in comparison to the poisoned control group (P=0.025 and P=0.01, respectively). Eventually, there was no significant difference among other groups.

 Exercise and eugenol increased PI3K and BDNF expression. It is thought that exercise and consumption of eugenol in poisoned rats reduces damage and improves muscle function and the BDNF/PI3K signaling pathway.