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Int. J. Mol. Sci. 2013, 14(3), 6074-6089; doi:10.3390/ijms14036074

Article

Early Exercise Protects against Cerebral Ischemic Injury through Inhibiting Neuron Apoptosis in Cortex in Rats

Pengyue Zhang ^1,2,†,* , Yuling Zhang ^2,†, Jie Zhang ^1,3, Yi Wu ², Jie Jia ², Junfa Wu ² and Yongshan Hu ²

¹ Medical Faculty, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming 650500, China ² Department of Rehabilitation, Huashan Hospital, Fudan University, Shanghai 200040, China ³ Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Birth Defects and Genetic Diseases, Genetic Diagnosis Center, the First People's Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming 650032, China ^† These authors contributed equally to this work.

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 14 January 2013; in revised form: 3 February 2013 / Accepted: 28 February 2013 / Published: 15 March 2013

(This article belongs to the collection Programmed Cell Death and Apoptosis)

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Abstract: Early exercise is an effective strategy for stroke treatment, but the underlying mechanism remains poorly understood. Apoptosis plays a critical role after stroke. However, it is unclear whether early exercise inhibits apoptosis after stroke. The present study investigated the effect of early exercise on apoptosis induced by ischemia. Adult SD rats were subjected to transient focal cerebral ischemia by middle cerebral artery occlusion model (MCAO) and were randomly divided into early exercise group, non-exercise group and sham group. Early exercise group received forced treadmill training initiated at 24 h after operation. Fourteen days later, the cell apoptosis were detected by TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick-end labeling (TUNEL) and Fluoro-Jade-B staining (F-J-B). Caspase-3, cleaved caspase-3 and Bcl-2 were determined by western blotting. Cerebral infarct volume and motor function were evaluated by cresyl violet staining and foot fault test respectively. The results showed that early exercise decreased the number of apoptotic cells (118.74 ± 6.15 vs. 169.65 ± 8.47, p < 0.05, n = 5), inhibited the expression of caspase-3 and cleaved caspase-3 (p < 0.05, n = 5), and increased the expression of Bcl-2 (p < 0.05, n = 5). These data were consistent with reduced infarct volume and improved motor function. These results suggested that early exercise could provide neuroprotection through inhibiting neuron apoptosis.

Keywords: early exercise; cerebral ischemia; apoptosis; neuroprotection; caspase

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