Effect of voluntary exercise in enriched environment on AGE expression, amyloid beta accumulation, and rate of death cell in hippocampus Wistar rats with type III diabetes

Alzheimer’s is a neuroendocrine disease related to insulin signaling, due to the association of Alzheimer’s disease with the reduction of insulin production and resistance, the term type III or cerebral diabetes has become popular in this regard. Accumulation of Advanced glycation end products (AGEs) is associated with aging, inflammation, and neurodegenerative diseases. AGEs increase the accumulation of amyloid oligomers in the brain causing neurotoxicity. The beneficial effect of physical activity on the brain has been established, but the effect of voluntary exercise in an enriched environment had been less investigated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the effect of 8 weeks of voluntary exercise in an enriched environment on the expression of AGEs protein, Amyloid beta, and cell death rate in the hippocampal tissue of male Wistar rats with type III diabetes.

Methods and Materials: 

Twenty 10-week-old male rats were randomly divided into four groups including healthy control, sham, type III diabetes, and type III diabetes group+ voluntary exercise in an enriched environment. The intervention group trained in the cage two hours a day for eight weeks. To analyze the data, one-way analysis of variance and Tukey’s post hoc test were used at a significance level of p≤0.05.

Voluntary exercise in the enriched environment caused a significant decrease in AGEs protein expression and amyloid beta accumulation in the hippocampus (p=0.0001). Also, the rate of cell death in the voluntary exercise group was significantly reduced compared to the control of diabetes type III (p=0.0001).

It seems that the activity in the enriched environment probably changes of AGEs and Amyloid beta by improving insulin resistance and increasing insulin production, and has favorable effects in reducing the signs of dead cells and improving cognitive function in type III diabetes.