comparing the effects of regular aerobic training, hyaluronic acid, and mesenchymal stem cells on wnt/β-catenin signaling of cardiac tissue in rats with the experimental model of knee osteoarthritis

Background: the present study aimed to compare the effects of three therapeutic methods, including regular aerobic training, hyaluronic acid (ha), and mesenchymal stem cells, on wnt/β-catenin signaling of cardiac tissue in rats with the experimental model of knee osteoarthritis. methods: sixty-three male rats were divided into nine groups (seven in each group): (1) healthy control, (2) patient control, (3) sham, (4) saline, (5) exercise (ext), (6) mesenchymal stem cells (mscs), (7) hyaluronic acid, (8) ext + mscs, and (9) ext + ha. after inducing the osteoarthritis (oa) model, we conducted 5 days of running on the treadmill for five weeks for the ext group. also, ha was injected intra-articularly. after 12 to 14 hours of fasting and 72 hours following the last training session, we conducted cardiac tissue sampling for β-catenin, gsk-3β, wnt, fz, tcf, and dkk1 analysis. we used rt-pcr to analyze the expression of the β-catenin, gsk-3β, wnt, fz, tcf, and dkk1 genes in cardiac tissue. the data were analyzed using one-way anova and tukey's post hoc test (p < 0.05). results: osteoarthritis induction significantly decreased the expression of the gsk-3β and dkk1 genes but significantly increased the expression of the β-catenin, wnt, fz, and tcf genes of cardiac tissue compared to the control group. however, the ext, ha, msc, and combination methods increased the expression of the gsk-3β and dkk1 genes but decreased the expression of the β-catenin, wnt, fz, and tcf genes of cardiac tissue, which were significant in the combination group. conclusions: regular exercise, along with ha and mscs, may have protective effects for the following reasons: (1) reducing the expression of the β-catenin, wnt, fz, and tcf genes; (2) increasing the expression of the gsk-3β and dkk1 genes in cardiac tissue; and (3) inhibiting wnt signaling in the heart.