The Effect of Aerobic Exercise and Quercetin Supplementation on Myostatin and Follistatin Levels in the Heart Tissue of Rats with Type 2 Diabetes

This study aimed to investigate the effect of quercetin supplementation and training on myostatin and follistatin levels in the heart tissue of diabetic rats. Methods For this purpose, 50 10-week-old male Wistar rats with an average weight of 237±33 grams were randomly divided into five groups of 10 including: healthy control, diabetes, diabetes+supplement, diabetes+exercise, and diabetes+supplement+exercise. . The training protocol includes five sessions per week for eight weeks on a treadmill without a special slope. The rodents ran for 60 minutes at a speed of 25 meters per minute in each session.and the supplement groups received 50 mg/kg quercetin daily by gavage. The results showed that the difference in myostatin levels among the groups is significant (P=0.001). There was a significant decrease in myostatin levels between exercise+supplement+diabetes group with diabetes (P=0.002). There was also a significant difference between the supplement+diabetes and exercise+diabetes groups (P=0.009). Also, the results showed that the difference in follistatin levels among the groups is significant (P=0.001). The results showed that follistatin levels in the heart tissue increased significantly between the groups of diabetes, exercise+diabetes, supplement+diabetes and exercise+supplements+diabetes with the control group (respectively: P=0.005; P=0.001; P=0.001; P = 0.001). It seems that moderate intensity aerobic exercise and quercetin supplementation have a positive and beneficial effect on the levels of myostatin and folstatin.