Investigation the effect of low-intensity aerobic training for 10 weeks along with blood flow restriction on amount of protein BDNF in soleus and EDL muscles as well as the sciatic nerve in aged male rats

The current study aims to investigat the effect of low-intensity aerobic training for 10 weeks along with blood flow restriction on amount of protein BDNF in soleus and EDL muscles as well as the sciatic nerve in aged male rats.

60 aged -Wistar male rats (23-24 months) were chosen which their weigh were 355 to 481 grams. They were divided into 6 groups randomly, blood flow restriction (BFR), exercise with blood flow restriction (BFR + Ex), sham(Sh), sham exercise (Sham + Ex), control (Ctl) and control exercise (Ex). They were trained with a low aerobic exercise (15 m / min) for 1 hour, 5 days a week for 10 weeks then were sacrificed 48 hours after the last training session. The samples of muscle and the sciatic nerve were separated immediately and they were put in a solid nitrogen. and Then,they were preserved at -80 ° C. The protein samples were detected by Western Bloting method. The statistical analysis were conducted with SPSS software version 18. Data normal distribution determind by Shapiro – Wilk test. Comparisons were performed among different groups by one-way ANOVA and post hoc Tukey’s test. P values less than 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.

The results have shown that BDNF protein in the EDL muscle for BFR + Ex group significantly decreases only with Ctl and Sh groups (P˂0.05). In addtion, in soleus muscle BFR + Ex group significantly decreased in all groups (with groups Ctl, Sh and BFR 0.00 = p and Ex and Sh + Ex p˂0.03). moeover, Ex, Sh + Ex groups in comparision with Ctl and Sh have decreased significantly (0.00 = p). On the other hand, the sciatic nerve of BFR + Ex group, in comparision with all groups, increased significant (0.00 = p).

This study has indicates that this type of exercise affects on the BDNF protein in slow and fastwitch muscles. Furthermore, BFR+Ex , as a training method, can influence on nerve and muscule positively.