aerobic exercise and resveratrol cooperatively modulate hippocampal mitochondrial mitophagy in alzheimer's disease rat models

Background: mitochondrial proteostasis disruption in alzheimer's disease (ad) results in impaired mitochondrial autophagy (mitophagy). this study evaluated the effects of 8-week aerobic exercise training (t), resveratrol (rsv) supplementation, and their combination on mitophagy markers in an ad rat model.methods: in this experimental study, 35 male wistar rats were divided into five groups: control (no), alzheimer's (ad), alzheimer's-training (adt), alzheimer's-resveratrol (adrsv), and alzheimer's-training-resveratrol (adtrsv). rsv groups received 20 mg/kg/day orally. the aerobic exercise protocol consisted of treadmill running (6–18 m/min) five days per week for eight weeks. hippocampal pink1 and parkin expression levels were analyzed.results: ad induction significantly reduced pink1 and parkin expression (p < 0.001). compared to the ad group, significant increases in pink1 and parkin were observed in the adt (p = 0.043; p = 0.005), adrsv (p = 0.033; p = 0.046), and adtrsv (p < 0.001) groups. the adtrsv group showed higher pink1 expression than adt (p = 0.036) and adrsv (p = 0.046), and greater parkin expression than adrsv (p = 0.046).conclusion: exercise training and rsv supplementation improved hippocampal mitophagy in ad rats, with synergistic effects observed in the combined intervention. these findings suggest that non-pharmacological strategies may mitigate ad-related mitochondrial dysfunction.