the effect of high intensity interval training (hiit) and crocin consumption on doxorubicin-induced apoptotic indices in the muscle tissue of rats

Background: apoptosis is one of the main means to remove undesirable cells that occurs in the eucaryotic and even procaryotic organisms. objectives: this study aimed to examine the effect of 8 weeks of high-intensity interval training (hiit) and crocin consumption on apoptotic factors in the soleus muscle of male rats exposed to doxorubicin. methods: sixty male rats were selected and divided into five groups: 1) doxorbicin- control, 2) training, 3) crocin, 4) training + crocin, and 5) healthy control. groups 1 to 4 received 2 mg/kg doxorubicin intraperitoneally; groups 3 and 4 received daily 10 mg/kg crocin, and groups 2 and 5 received hiit including high-intensity interval repetitions (80 to 90% of maximum speed) and low-intensity interval repetitions (30 to 40% of maximum speed) at two-minute alternations for eight weeks and for five days each week. results: doxorubicin had a significant effect on increasing bax and caspase-3 and decreasing bcl-2 (p≤0.05). however, training had a significant effect on reducing bax and increasing bcl-2 (p≤0.05). crocin consumption had a significant effect on decreasing bax and caspase-3 and increasing bcl-2 (p ≤ 0.05). in addition, training and crocin consumption had interactive effects on decreasing bax and increasing bcl-2 (p≤0.05). conclusions: it appears that the combination of hiit with crocin extract can be used to increase the expression of the bcl-2 protein gene as an anti-apoptotic factor and decrease the expression of bax gene as a stimulating factor in the soleus muscle of male rats exposed to doxorubicin.