Effect of running time on cell proliferation in the hippocampus of male adult rats

Exercise can causes neurogenesis in the brain of adult mammals. Until now few studies investigated how the effect of exercise on neurogenesis. The aim of the present study was examine the effect of the running time on cell proliferation in the hippocampus of adult male rats.

Eighteen adult male rats following one week of familiarization with treadmill were randomly divided into three groups including of control group (n=6), 30-min running group (n=6) and 60-min running group (n=6). The animals in running groups were subjected to daily 30-min and 60-min treadmill exercise sessions with velocity of 12 meter per minute for 14 consecutive days. At the last 10 days, animals received daily injections of bromodeoxyuridine (BrdU) in a specific dose to label dividing cells. After 48 hours of the last session of running, the animals were sacrificed and their brain was removed for immunohistochemichal analysis. The one-way analysis of variance followed by least significant difference (LSD) post hoc test was used to analyze the data at the significant level of p<0.05.

The number of Brdu+ cells increased significantly both after running for 30 (p=0.001) and 60 (p=0.001) minutes; so that these changes were significantly higher after the 60-min than to the 30-min running (p=0.001).

The results of this study showed that running regardless of time traveled per day increases cell proliferation in the hippocampus of adult male rats; so that the longer the time, the greater the rate of cell proliferation.