Effect of regular aerobic exercise on serum levels of cTnI, TNF-α and apoptosis in cardiac ischemia-reperfusion injury of the rats

The  process  of  restoring  blood  flow  to  ischemic  heart  muscle  is  antithetically  capable  of inducing cardiac damage. Cardiac troponin I (cTnI) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α) are the important biochemical parameters of cardiac tissue damage. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of short term and regular growing long term aerobic exercise on serum levels of cTnI and TNF-α in rats with Ischemia/Reperfusion (I/R) injury. For this purpose, forty male Wistar rats were randomly divided into four equal groups including: control, I/R, I/R with two weeks of aerobic exercise, and I/R with eight weeks of regular growing aerobic exercise groups. Aerobic exercise was performed 5 times per week on treadmill at speed of 10-25m/min for 10-30 minutes with the slope of 5 degrees. For induction of I/R injury, the left descending coronary artery was clamped for 30 minutes, thereafter blood flow was restored for 2 hours. Finally, after collection of blood samples from the retro-orbital plexus for cTnI and TNF-α measurements, all animals were euthanized.  Histologic sections were created for TUNEL staining from the hearts. Regular growing long term aerobic exercise significantly (p<0.05) decreased the cTnI and TNF-α serum levels, which were increased due to I/R injury. Microscopically, the numbers of apoptotic cells were significantly (p<0.01) increased in I/R group compared to the control group. Regular growing long term aerobic exercise significantly decreased the number of apoptotic cells (p<0.05). The results showed regular growing long term aerobic exercise protects the cardiac tissue of rats from I/R injury. Conflict of interest: None declared.