simultaneous effect of resistance training and alpha lipoic acid on beclin-1 expression and malondialdehyde level of fatty liver diabetic male rats

Background: autophagy is a genetically and evolutionarily conserved programmed process that destroys long-lived cellular proteins and organelles. objectives: the aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of eight weeks of strength training with alpha-lipoic acid supplementation on becline-1 and malondialdehyde concentrations in elderly diabetic rats. methods: in this experimental study, 35 old male wistar rats were randomly divided into five groups (healthy control, diabetic, diabetic + strength training, diabetic + supplement, diabetic + strength training + supplement). at first, the rats became diabetic and had fatty liver. then strength training program was performed in eight weeks. alpha-lipoic acid supplement was also injected three days a week. at the end of the training period, tissues were removed, and the expression of becline-1 was measured by rt-pcr, and malondialdehyde concentration was measured by tba laboratory method. for data analysis, a one-way analysis variance test was used for between-groups comparison (p < 0.05). results: the results showed that strength training program and in combination with alpha-lipoic acid (ala) supplementation significantly reduced becline-1 (p = 0.001) and malondialdehyde compared to the healthy and diabetic control groups (p = 0.000). conclusions: strength exercise combined with ala supplementation has a significant role in reducing the rate of autophagy and can reduce fatty liver in elderly type 2 diabetic rats.