Effect of Aerobic Training During Pregnancy on Seizure-Induced Depression- in Mouse

Depression during pregnancy is not uncommon. In addition, depression is more common in patients suffering from epilepsy. Aerobic activity has been reported to alleviate depression. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of aerobic training during pregnancy on seizure-induced depression.
Pregnant mice were randomly divided to control, sham, and experiment groups. The pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) kindling was induced on days 14 to19 after pregnancy in the experiment group. Experiment group was divided to mice with and without aerobic activities. Aerobic activity was performed every day during pregnancy. The rate of depression in pregnant mice was measured between the 14th and 19th days of pregnancy once in 48 hours and two hours after PTZ injection.
Treatment with aerobic training significantly decreased seizure-induced depression as well as seizure severity in pregnant mice.
The present study showed that aerobic training during pregnancy is positively associated with decreasing depression and severity of seizure in PTZ-treated mice.