Protective Effect of Exercise on Nerve Growth Factor in the Hippocampal CA1 Region Following Ischemic Stroke in Male Rat

Brain ischemia causes irreversible structural and functional damages to specific parts of brain particularly the hippocampus. There are evidences that show exercise training may decrease the damages inflected on brain. The purpose of this research was to examine the effect of exercise training on nerve growth factor (NGF) in hippocampus CA1 region following cerebral ischemia stroke in male Wistar Rats.

24 male Wistar rats weighing 250-300 g were randomly assigned into three groups including Sham, Ischemia/Control, and Ischemia/Exercise. The rats in the exercise groups ran on a rat treadmill for 45 minutes per day five days a week for 8 consecutive weeks. Common carotid artery occlusion procedure was employed for 45 minutes to induce ischemia. Cresyl violet (Nissl) was used to neuronal death, and ladder rung walking test was used to evaluate motor and functional recovery. In addition, NGF protein expression was assayed by immunohistochemistry.

Brain ischemia increased neuron death in CA1 region in hippocampus and impaired motor performance on the ladder rung task. In contrast, post-ischemic exercise considerably reduced neuron death and improved skilled motor performance. In addition, NGF protein expression was significantly higher in ischemic/exercise group than the ischemic/control group (P < 0.05).

When exercise is prescribed as a treatment and rehabilitation method after cerebral ischemia, it had significant effects on increasing NGF protein expression, and may reduce dead cells, and improve motor function.