Abstract
Brain ischemia is the second most deadly disease in the world and it has already been proven that mild and moderate physical exercises minimize the deleterious effects of this disease on the brain. Curcumin has also been considered a neuroprotective substance. Therefore, the goal of this study was to evaluate the effects of high-resistance training and curcumin on the brain and motor performance of rats with cerebral ischemia using a model of bilateral common carotid artery occlusion. Functional tests were performed to analyze rats' motor performance, namely parallel bar test and misstep test. For nerve tissue analysis, Nissl staining and neuronal counting were performed in the cerebral cortex, striatum and hippocampus of the brains. Two protocols of high-intensity physical training were performed for six weeks, five days a week, from 20 to 40 min. The results demonstrated that there were significant differences in the parallel bar test and misstep test regarding the number of errors committed by the trained animals in comparison to the sedentary ones and the group that received curcumin. With respect to the number of neurons in the cortex and striatum, a lower neuronal density was observed in the trained animals. Thus, the animals of the sedentary group and the group that received curcumin exhibited better motor performance and higher neuronal density in the areas assessed, demonstrating that high-intensity physical exercise increased brain injury and worsened animals' motor performance.
Highlights
Cerebral ischemia is the second most deadly disease in the world
It is extremely important to study the molecular mechanisms involved in the excitotoxicity process in cerebral ischemia in order to determine the neuroprotective factors in this injury (Zhang et al, 2012)
The animals were divided into the following groups for the analysis of motor performance: Six animals submitted to injections of intraperitoneal curcumin and high-intensity resistance exercises (TIC-1); six animals submitted to high-intensity resistance training (TI-1); six animals in the sedentary group (S); six animals in the group submitted to intraperitoneal curcumin and sedentariness (CS); six animals submitted to high-intensity exercise, strength exercise and intraperitoneal curcumin (TIC-2); and six animals submitted to high-intensity training and strength exercises (TI-2)
Summary
Cerebral ischemia is the second most deadly disease in the world. It can cause great motor, sensory and systemic deficiency (Sociedade Brasileira de Doenças Cerebrovasculares; Pinheiro, 2011; Trindade et al, 2011). Bilateral Common Carotid Artery Occlusion (BCCAO) is a type of experimental animal model that allows the reproduction of the ischemic event by inducing hypoxia with cerebral reperfusion. It causes great damage of the brain tissue due to oxidative stress and glutamate excitotoxicity (Tardini et al, 2003; Telles et al, 2014). In addition to having intensity above the anaerobic threshold, high-intensity exercises are characterized by Sacramento Resende, Yuri César Silva, Flávia Carmo Horta Pinto and Laila Cristina Moreira Damázio
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