The Effects of intensive treadmill training on neurological function and expression of kalirin-7 after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion in rats

Objective To investigate the effects of treadmill training at different intensities on neurological function and expression of kalirin-7 in rats after cerebral ischemia-reperfusion, and the possible mechanism. Methods Sixty Wistar male rats were randomized into a model group, a routine training group, an intensive training group and a sham-operation group (n=15 for each group). A middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion (MCAO/R) model was established in all the rats of the first three groups. The model group and sham group did no motor training, while the utine training group did treadmill training once daily, and the intensive training group did treadmill training twice a day. On the 3rd, 7th and 14th day, Zausinger scores was used to evaluate the neurological deficit; reverse Transcription PCR (RT-PCR) and Western blot were adopted to detect the expression of kalirin-7 and kalirin-7 mRNA in the peri-ischemic brain tissues respectively. Results The average Zausinger scores of the model group and 2 training groups were significantly lower than that of the sham-operation group at all time points; on the 7th and 14th days, the average score of the intensive training group was significantly higher than that of the outine training group. Moreover, the expression of kalirin-7 and kalirin-7 mRNA in the MCAO rats were significantly lower than that in the sham-operation group. On days 7 and 14, the expression of kalirin-7 in the intensive training group was significantly higher than that of the routine training group, which was still significantly higher than the model group. On day 14, the expression of kalirin-7 mRNA in the intensive training group was significantly higher than that of the routine training group, which was still significantly higher than the model group. Conclusion The intensive training is superior to routine training in promoting neural functional recovery and expression of kalirin-7 in rats with cerebral ischemia-reperfusion. Key words: Cerebral ischemia-reperfusion; Intensive training; Rat; Neurological function