The Combination Effect of Voluntary Exercise and Crocin on Angiogenic miRNAs in High-Fat Diet/Low-Dose STZ-Induced Type2 Diabetes in Rats: miR-126 and miR-210

Background: as one of the major complications of diabetes, cardiovascular disease might result in early death in people with diabetes. mir-126 and 210 expressions undergo alterations in cardiac disease and cause heart failure. methods: animals were divided into the 5 groups of control (con), diabetes (dia), diabeticcrocin (dia-cro), diabetic-voluntary exercise (dia-exe), and diabetic-crocin-voluntary exercise (dia-cro-exe). type 2 diabetes was induced by the use of a high-fat diet (4 weeks) and injection of streptozotocin (stz) (i.p, 35 mg/kg). animals received crocin orally (50 mg/kg), and voluntary exercise was performed alone or together for 8 weeks. qrt–pcr method was used to determine the levels of mir-210 and mir-126 in cardiac tissue. results: the levels of mir-210 and mir-126 in the cardiac tissue augmented in both the crocin and voluntary exercise groups in comparison with the non-treated group (p<0.001). the use of combination therapy with exercise and crocin magnified their effects on mir-210 and mir-126 levels (p<0.001). moreover, mir-210 levels were lower in the crocin group compared to the exercise group (p<0.001). conclusion: the results indicated that voluntary exercise combined with crocin might provide a novel therapeutic plan for cardiovascular disease through increasing mir-210 and mir-126 expression.