Differential impact of treadmill training on stroke-induced neurological disorders

ABSTRACT

Objective: Physical exercise contributes to improving stability against nerve injury caused by ischaemic stroke. Here we aimed to preliminarily investigate the effects of continuous endurance training (CET) and high-intensity interval training (HIT) on stroke-associated anxiety, locomotion, neurological assessments and P70S6 Kinase (P70S6K) activation as well. To do this, rats were trained according to HIT and CET protocols for 2 months prior to being subject to middle cerebral artery occlusion surgery.

Methods: Twenty-four hours later behavioural examination was performed by elevated plus maze (EPM) testing, open field and neurological scoring followed by cortical and hippocampal P70S6Ks immunoblotting.

Results: According to the obtained data pre-ischaemic HIT and CET similarly improved neurological performance, anxiety levels and locomotion in EPM and open field tests following ischaemic stroke while there was a remarkable rise in hippocampal and cortical P70S6K activation in the HIT group compared to the CET counterparts.

Conclusion: Behavioral and molecular data suggest that interval training is more beneficial rather than CET, but the distinct mechanisms of CET and HIT on memory are still topics to be discovered.

KEYWORDS:

• Continuous endurance training
• high-intensity training
• P70S6Kinase
• cerebral ischaemia

Declaration of interest

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest. This research was supported by a research fund from faculty of Sport Science, University of Shahid Beheshti. We are also grateful to Neurobiology Research Center of Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences for providing facilities.