The Effect of Endurance Training on Myocardial Fibrosis and Oxidative Enzymes in Type 2 Diabetic Rats

Type 2 diabetes is a chronic metabolic disease and a complex disorder with several micro and macro vascular complications in different parts of the body, which is associated with cardiac fibrosis. On the other hand, endurance training seems to prevent the development of cardiac fibrosis in diabetes by reducing fasting glucose levels and increasing antioxidant indices.

24 male Wistar rats were randomly divided into three groups: healthy control (NC, n=8), diabetes control (DC, n=8) and exercise diabetes (DT, n=8) after familiarization with the laboratory environment. Diabetes was induced to diabetic animals through streptozotocin injection. Training groups, performed 8 weeks of intermittent endurance training on a treadmill. Hematoxylin-eosin and Masson trichrome staining were used to check the level of fibrosis and cell disorder. Serum malondialdehyde (MDA) was measured by thiobarbituric acid spectrophotometry. Also, total serum antioxidants were measured by FRAP method.

Compared to the diabetic control group, rats in the training group showed a decrease in fibrosis, fasting glucose, and also a decrease in triglyceride and total cholesterol (P<0.05).

Based on the results, it seems that Endurance training in diabetic Rats prevents the development of cardiac fibrosis caused by diabetes by reducing fasting blood sugar, lipid profile and increasing total antioxidants. However, more studies are needed.