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Background & objectives: Osteoarthritis as a result of the destruction of articular cartilage, leads to joint pain and stiffness. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of endurance and ozone therapy on the expression levels of FLS and VEGF genes in the knee tissue of rats with knee osteoarthritis.
Methods: Subjects were male Wistar rats that were randomly divided into 5 groups after two weeks of adaptation, including: control-healthy, control-patient, patient-ozone, patient-exercise and patient-sport. For adapting the rats to exercise and treadmill, walking program was performed before exercise program. The training program consisted of 30 minutes of running on a treadmill with no slope at a speed of 16 m/min for the first week and one m/min added weekly until it reached 22 m/min in the eighth week. Ozone was injected into the knee through the tibiofemoral articular line at a concentration of 20 μg/ml once a week for 3 weeks at 9 o'clock in the morning. Expression levels of FLS and VEGF genes were measured by Real Time PCR. One way ANOVA and Tukey's method were used to determine the difference between groups.
Results: The results showed that the expression levels of FLS and VEGF genes were significantly increased in rats with osteoarthritis. It was also shown that physical training and ozone therapy led to a decrease in FLS and VEGF gene expression levels in osteoarthritic rats. VEGF and its receptors are expressed in OA cartilage and indicating the possibility that VEGF is involved in the elimination of OA articular cartilage by increasing MMP production.
Conclusion: The results of this study are promising for the role of VEGF as a diagnostic marker. VEGF can participate in early OA changes and a treatment modality by modulating VEGF production, which can be considered in future.

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Background & objective: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia among the elderly, threatening their quality of life. On the other hand, regular exercise is associated with improved brain health and cognitive function. However, the mechanisms of these benefits have not yet been fully elucidated. Therefore, the aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 4 weeks of moderate intensity interval aerobic training on cognitive function and expression level of PGC1α and VEGF genes in the hippocampus of old rats with AD.
Methods: For this purpose, 20-month-old male Wistar rats were divided into three groups of AD (n=8), AD+exercise training (n=8) and control (n=8). Intra-hippocampal injection of Aβ₄₂ was used to induce AD. The animals in the exercise group performed moderate-intensity interval aerobic exercise for 4 weeks, 5 days a week. To assess spatial learning and memory, the animals underwent the Morris water maze test 48 hours following the last training session. Then, the animals were killed and hippocampal tissue was extracted. Real time-PCR method was used to measure gene expression. Statistical analysis was performed using one-way analysis of variance and Pearson correlation coefficient at the significance level of p£0.05.
Results: The results showed that Aβ₄₂ injection impaired spatial learning and memory function and reduced the expression level of PGC1α and VEGF genes in hippocampal tissue (p£0.05). Aerobic exercise improved spatial learning and memory function and increased PGC1α and VEGF genes expression (p£0.01). Also, a significant positive relationship was observed between the PGC1α and VEGF gene expression levels in the hippocampus (r= 0.859, p≤0.01). In addition, there was a significant inverse relationship between PGC1α and VEGF genes expression and the mean time spent to find the platform (r= -0.9, p£0.01 and r= -0.750, p£0.01, respectively), and a significant positive relationship with the time spent in the target quadrant (r= -0.794, p£0.01 and r= -0.632, p£0.01, respectively).
Conclusion: In general, aerobic training improves spatial learning and memory performance in old animals with AD; up-regulation of the exercise-induced PGC1α/VEGF pathway in the brain, at least in part, appears to be involved in this adaptation.

 

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