a study of endurance exercise type, citrus aurantium (ca) supplementation and their interactive effects on the antioxidant status, crp, and angii of cardiac tissue in elderly rats

Introduction: the current study was aimed at determining the interactive effects of two training types of hiit and mict along with citrus aurantium supplementation on the antioxidant status, crp and angii of cardiac tissue in elderly rats. methods: thirty-five elderly female sprague-dawley rats with the mean age of 14 months and mean weight of 270-320 g were divided into 7 groups of 5 animals, including high-intensity interval training (hiit), moderate-intensity continuous training (mict), high-intensity interval training and citrus aurantium (hiit+ca), moderate-intensity continuous training and citrus aurantium (mict+ca), citrus aurantium (ca), sham (normal saline), and control. hiit was conducted at 85-110%vo2max and mict was performed at 65-75%vo2max. 300 mg/kg/day ca was injected peritoneally into each rat. hiit, mict, and ca supplementation protocols were performed before the statistical test. sod, cat, gpx activity levels (by elisa), and crp and angii gene expression levels (by real-time pcr) were measured in cardiac tissue. results: training, ca, and training+ca significantly increased sod (p≤0.05), and cat (p≤0.05) activity levels and reduced gpx (p≤0.05) activity levels. also, training and ca significantly increased angii gene expression levels (p≤0.05). conclusion: the results showed that training and ca supplementation instigated a significant change in sod, cat, and gpx activity levels. thus, it is suggested that hiit, mict, and ca should be used in order to improve the antioxidant status in elderly conditions. also, the interactive combination of training and ca seems to have a better effect on the antioxidant status in the elderly.