The Effect of Cinnamon Extract Supplementation on nAChR Response of Skeletal Muscle in Old Rats to Exhaustive Acute Exercise

Supplements containing antioxidants play an important role in improving performance in the elderly. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of cinnamon extract supplementation on nicotine acetylcholine receptor (nAChR) after one session of exhaustive exercise in old rats. 32 aged Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups: exhaustive exercise, cinnamon extract, cinnamon extract and exhaustive exercise and control. Cinnamon extract and cinnamon extract and exhaustive exercise groups received 200 mg/kg/day of cinnamon extract by intra gastric intubation for 14 days. Exhaustive exercise and cinnamon extract and exhaustive exercise groups firstly ran on a treadmill at the speed of 10 m/min. for warm-up. Then, speed increased by 2 m/min. every 2 minutes to reach 28 m/min. The rats were anesthetized and their SOL and EDL muscles were removed at rest, immediately and after 4 hours. The homogenized and western blot methods were used to identify the changes in variables. Data were analyzed by independent t test and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) at the significance level (P≤0.05). Results showed that nAChR was significantly higher immediately and after 4 hours in SOL muscle in all groups than the control group (P