The Effects of Exercise Training on Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor and Endostatin Gene Expression in Cardiac Tissue of Rats with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Impaired angiogenesis and formation of collateral vessels in skeletal and cardiac muscle, is a major complication of type 2 diabetes mellitus in ischemia. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes in vascular endothelial grows factor (VEGF) and Endostatin gene expression in cardiac tissue of rats with type 2 diabetes mellitus following aerobic continues and high-intensity interval exercise training. In this study, 48 Wistar rats were randomly divided into 4 equal groups of healthy control, diabetic control, diabetic continues, and high-intensity interval training. Type 2 diabetes mellitus was induced by intra-peritoneal injection of streptozotocin, and exercise performed 5 sessions per week for 8 weeks. The levels of VEGF and Endostatin gene expression were evaluated using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) method. Findings: There was a significant reduction in the expression of VEGF and Endostatin in the diabetic control group compared to the healthy control group. Compared to the diabetic control group, diabetic continues and high-intensity interval training groups showed a significant increase in expression of VEGF, but there was significant increase in Endostatin expression in diabetic continues group. The results of this study showed that both training methods were effective to increase the expression of VEGF and Endostatin levels after induction of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Since, there was increase in VEGF/Endostatin ratio, increase in pro-angiogenic activity in heart may be occurred, but the high-intensity interval exercise training was more effective to increase the expression of VEGF.