sayed shafa marashi

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory, autoimmune, and multi-factorial disease that substantially reduces patients’ quality of life. Since physical activity may offer anti-inflammatory and axonal protection benefits to these patients, this study aimed to explore the impact of swimming training on the proteins critical for the myelination of hippocampal tissue in cuprizone-induced rat’s model of MS.

In the current investigation, 20 male Wistar rats with an average age of 12 weeks and the weight of 230 g were purchased and divided randomly into four groups: healthy control, MS control, healthy training, and MS training. The MS disease model was induced by administering food containing 0.5% cuprizone for 12 weeks. Upon confirming MS induction through the rotarod test, rats underwent a six-week swimming protocol. In the first week, they performed 10 min swimming without applying loads, and thereafter the duration of swimming was added by 5 min every week. In order to maintain the adaptations the duration of the swimming for the fifth and sixth weeks was constant and was kept at 30 min. At the end of the training protocol, memory and balance were assessed via shuttle box and rotarod tests. Subsequently, the hippocampal tissue was extracted, and analyzed for determining the proteolipid protein (PLP) and Myelin basic protein (MBP) protein levels by using western blot and the amount of Nerve growth factor (NGF) protein was measured by using the ELISA method. The data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA and post-hoc comparisons were made by using Tukey's test at a significance level of p<0.05.

The findings of the shuttle box and rotarod tests revealed that the MS group had impaired memory function and balance maintenance, but these improved significantly after swimming training (p<0.001). No significant difference was observed in the results of the shuttle box and rotarod tests between healthy training and healthy control groups (p>0.05). The results of the present study showed that NGF, PLP and MBP proteins in the patient control group were significantly lower compared to the healthy control group (p<0.05). Furthermore, data analyses showed that the amounts of these proteins increased significantly in the MS training group compared to the MS control group (p<0.05). The results showed that there was a significant difference for NGF and PLP proteins between healthy training group and healthy control group (p<0.05), whereas, no significant differences in MBP protein levels were found between the healthy training and healthy control groups (p>0.05).

Based on the current research findings, it can be concluded that swimming exercise has notable anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective effects through favourable molecular adaptations, and it can probably be considered as a safe, non-pharmacological and complication-free method to improve the symptoms in MS patients.

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the central nervous system and is mediated by the immune system. Since physical activity has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative effects, Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effect of voluntary swimming activity on the iNOS & COX-2 protein content, as well as the cognitive and motor performance of the Multiple Sclerosis rats model.

In the present study, 20 rats with an average age of 12 weeks were categorized into four groups, including healthy control, MS control, healthy training, and MS training. To induce MS, the rats of the MS groups were fed food infused with 0.5%cuprizone throughout the entire 12-week research protocol. After the end of 6 weeks of training protocol and conducting behavioral tests, the hippocampus tissue was extracted, and the number of proteins was measured using the western blot method.

The results of the memory and motor function tests revealed that subjects with MS had impaired memory function, motor activity, and difficulty maintaining balance. However, following a period of swimming activity, these functions significantly improved. The results also showed that the levels of iNOS and COX-2 proteins in the MS control group were significantly elevated compared to the healthy control group. On the other hand, the MS training group showed significant reductions in the levels of these proteins compared to the MS control group.

Based on the results of the current research, voluntary swimming exercise activity could potentially lead to more nerve protection and improvement of memory function, motor activity, and balance in patients with MS and can be promising as a non-pharmacological treatment strategy.