Journal of Sports and Biomotor Sciences

Journal of Sports and Biomotor Sciences

Evaluation of BDNF and Irisin changes involved in cognitive performance after 6 weeks of intermittent high-intensity swimming training in the hippocampus of adult male Wistar rats

Document Type : Original Article

Authors
1 Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Education, Faculty of Social Sciences, International University of Emam Khomeini, Ghazvin, Iran.
2 Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Education, Amirkabir University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.
3 Assistant Professor, Department of Sport Sciences, Faculty of Humanities Sciences, University of Hormozgan, Hormozgan, Iran.
4 Assistant Professor, Department of Basic Sciences, Hamedan University of Technology, Hamedan, Iran.
Abstract
Introduction and Purpose: Irisin and brain neurotrophic factor are involved in cognitive function as molecular indicators. The present study investigated the effect of high-intensity swimming on the changes of these two factors and cognitive performance.
Materials and Methods: The research method was experimental. 20 male Wistar rats (age 8 weeks, weight 250 ± 30 grams) were randomly divided into training and control groups after two weeks of familiarization with the standard environment of the animals in the laboratory and the training protocol. The training group participated in six weeks of high-intensity swimming training, and 48 hours after the last training session, the mice were sacrificed and their hippocampus tissue was removed. Real-time PCR method was used to measure irisin and BDNF gene expression, and Morris water test was used to evaluate cognitive function. Independent t-test was used to analyze gene expression findings and covariance test was used for cognitive function at a significance level of P<0.05.
Results: The results showed that six weeks of high-intensity swimming significantly increased the levels of irisin, BDNF (P=0.001) and improved cognitive performance (P=0.008) in the training group compared to the control group.
Discussion and Conclusion: Irisin and BDNF levels of the hippocampus significantly increase in response to six weeks of high-intensity swimming training, and this increase was in line with the improvement of the cognitive test of water maze. Therefore, it seems that a part of the cognitive performance improvement following the training protocol occurred with the incremental changes of irisin and BDNF in brain cells.
Keywords

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Volume 16, Issue 31 - Serial Number 31
September 2024
Pages 66-76

  • Receive Date 07 April 2024
  • Revise Date 24 August 2024
  • Accept Date 28 August 2024