Treadmill Exercise Facilitates Functional Recovery and Neuroprotection in Subacute Stroke Rat

Abstract

 Abstract—Treadmill exercise has been a controversial method to help stroke rat with functional recovery and neuroprotection. In this study, we investigated the effect of treadmill exercise on focal brain ischemia stroke rat in subacute phase. Twelve rats were induced focal ischemic stroke by a 60 min middle cerebral artery occlusion/reperfusion surgery and then randomly divided into two group, control group (CG, n=6) and treadmill group (TG, n=6). TC rats received daily treadmill exercise training during the seven-day experimental period while CG rats did not receive any intervention. Daily functional test results were recorded and all rats were sacrificed for TTC staining on the 7 th day. The increase rate of behaviour score in TG is significantly higher than that in CG (P<0.05) and the infarct volume in TG is significantly smaller than that in CG (P<0.05). Results illustrated that post-stroke treadmill exercise can facilitate the functional recovery and provide neuroprotection in focal ischemic stroke rat in the subacute phase.