Background: Diabetes causes nerve tissue damage and ultimately death of nerve cells, especially in important areas such as the hippocampus. It seems that exercise training and anti-inflammatory supplements can moderate this condition. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine the effect of aerobic training exercise and L-carnitine consumption on the levels of hippocampus CNTF and CNTFR proteins in diabetic rat.
Methods: 45 Wistar rats between 250 to 300 gr were randomly divided into six groups, including healthy control groups, sham, diabetic control, diabetes
+ aerobic exercise, diabetes + L-carnitine supplementation and diabetes + aerobic exercise + L-carnitine supplementation. L-carnitine supplements were divided. Diabetic groups underwent subcutaneous injection of 55 mg / kg STZ. supplementary groups received 100 mg of L-carnitine per day orally. The aerobic exercise program was performed for 6 weeks and 5 days a week. The research variables were measured 24 hours after the last training session by the ELISA technics in the hippocampal tissue. The statistical method of one-way analysis of variance and Toki post –hoc test were used to analyze the data.
Results: The present study showed an significant increase in CNTF and CNTFR protein levels of hippocampal tissue after aerobic exercise and L-carnitine consumption (P = 0.001), which greater effect found in combination manner.
Conclusion: Due to the effect of aerobic exercise and L-carnitine supplementation alone and in interaction with each other on hippocampal tissue, the use of this method can be considered as maintaining neural tissue in diabetes.