Changes in Cardiac Levels of Caspase-8, Bcl-2 and Nt-Probnp Following 4 Weeks of Aerobic Exercise in Diabetic Rats

Introduction: cardiac apoptosis is one of the most important cardiovascular complications of diabetes. we aimed to investigate the changes of caspase-8, bcl-2, and n-terminal pro b-type natriuretic peptide (nt-probnp) in cardiac tissue after 4 weeks of aerobic exercise in male rats with diabetes. methods: forty adult male rats were randomly allocated to healthy control, diabetes, control + exercise and exercise + diabetes groups. diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (stz) solution (55 mg/kg). two weeks after injection, fasting blood glucose levels were measured. after the induction of diabetes, the exercise program was performed for 4 weeks (5 sessions per week) at a speed of 15 to 18 m/min for 25 to 44 minutes. forty-eight hours after the last training session, the subjects were anesthetized and the heart muscle was removed. caspase-8, bcl-2 and nt-probnp levels were measured by elisa method. results: the induction of diabetes in the control group resulted in a significant increase in caspase-8, and nt-probnp levels while an insignificant increase was observed for bcl-2 levels (p < 0.05). in non-diabetic groups, exercise caused no changes in caspase-8, nt-probnp and bcl-2 (p < 0.05). exercise in diabetic groups significantly decreased nt-probnp while no changes were observed in caspase-8 and bcl-2 (p < 0.05). conclusion: our findings showed that diabetes increases the pro-apoptotic and anti-apoptotic agent. in addition, 4 weeks of regular aerobic exercises can be used as a non-pharmacological strategy to reduce the complications of apoptosis in diabetic cardiomyocytes.