Effect of three months of treadmill endurance training on p53 and cytochrome-c gene expression in male rat soleus muscle

Aim and Apoptosis in skeletal muscle plays an important role in disease-related tissue dysfunction such as muscle atrophy. Current evidence suggests that exercise trainings may alter apoptosis-related signaling and enzymes in skeletal muscle. Therefore, the purpose of this study was investigating the effect of three months of treadmill endurance training on p53 and cytochrome-c gene expression in male rat soleus muscle.
This study was conducted as a two-group experimental design and sixteen 3-month-old male rats were selected and randomly divided into two groups of endurance training (n=8) and control (n=8). Rats in trained group participated in the endurance training program for three months (75-80% AWT IMAGE). 48 hours after the last training session, the soleus muscle of rats were extracted and p53 and cytochrome-c mRNA evaluated by Real Time-PCR. Independent t-test was applied for statistical analysis of the data (P There was no significant difference between endurance training and control group with regard to the p53 gene expression (P=0.67). However, cytochrome-c gene expression of trained group was significantly lower than the control group (64.84%, P=0.01).
In general, it seems that three months of endurance training was effective in decreasing of cytochrome-c gene expression and mitochondrial apoptotic in soleus muscle. However, more researches are needed to identify effects of exercise trainings on indices of apoptosis and skeletal muscle atrophy.