The effect of treadmill exercise on inflammatory responses in rat model of streptozotocin-induced experimental dementia of Alzheimer’s type

PURPOSE The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of treadmill exercise on inflammatory response in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced animal model of Alzheimer's disease (AD). METHODS To induce the animal model of AD, Sprague-Dawley rats were injected into intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection with 1.5 mg/kg of STZ. Rats were divided into three groups as Sham-con group (n = 7), STZ-con group (n = 7) and STZ-exe group (n = 7). Exercise group ran on the treadmill for 30 min/day, 5 days/week during 6 weeks. RESULTS The results of this study were as follows: First, STZ-exe group was improved on cognitive function when compared to STZ-con group in water maze test. Second, STZ-exe group help reduce the expression level of amyloid-beta (Aβ). In addition, Toll-like receptors-4 (TLR4), Nuclear factor-kB (NF-kB), Tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) and Interleukin-1α (IL-1α) level of STZ-exe group was significantly decreased when compared to STZ-con group. CONCLUSION These results show that treadmill exercise had positive effect on cognitive function and reduced inflammatory response in STZ-induced animal model of AD.