Physical exercise mitigates behavioral impairments in a rat model of sporadic Alzheimer's Disease.

Physical exercise mitigates behavioral impairments in a rat model of sporadic Alzheimer's Disease. Behav Brain Res. 2019 Nov 13;:112358 Authors: Bernardo TC, Beleza J, Rizo-Roca D, Santos-Alves E, Leal C, Martins MJ, Ascensão A, Magalhães J Abstract Physical exercise has proven to be beneficial to mitigate several deleterious effects associated with neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Here, we investigated the role of long-term exercise as a preventive and therapeutic tool against AD cognitive and behavioral impairments using a sporadic AD-like rat model, established through the administration of streptozotocin (STZ) inside both cerebral ventricles (icv). Six-weeks-old Wistar male rats (56) were divided into groups (either saline or STZ): sedentary (Sed), voluntary physical activity (VPA), VPA + endurance treadmill training (VPA + ET) and VPA + ET only after the injection (VPA + ET-post). Surgeries occurred at 16wks and the animals were sacrificed at 28 wks. VPA, VPA + ET, and VPA + ET-post had continuous access to the running wheels during the entire experimental protocol. VPA + ET (entire protocol) and VPA + ET-post (only after surgical procedure) ran 60 min/d, 25 m/min, 5d/wk in a treadmill. Both ET regimens led to significant improvements in the compromised spatial learning and long-term memory of STZ-infused animals that were not observed neither in the saline Sed...
Source: Behavioural Brain Research - Category: Neurology Authors: Tags: Behav Brain Res Source Type: research