Effect of Endurance Training and Stem Cell on Fgf2 and Mmp13 Gene Expression in Knee Tissue of Rats with Osteoarthritis

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of endurance training and stem cell injection on FGF2 and MMP13 gene expression in knee tissue of rats with knee osteoarthritis. Methods: The type of study was an experimental one.Male Wistar rats were randomly divided into 5 groups: control - healthy, control - patient, patient - stem cell, patient - training, and patient - training - stem cell. The training program consisted of 30 minutes of running on a treadmill with no slope at 16 m / min for the first week, with 1 m / min added weekly. Rats received MSCs through intracellular injection of 1*106 cells / kg. Expression of FGF2 and MMP13 genes was measured by Real Time PCR. One way ANOVA and if there was a significant difference, Tukey post hoc test were used to determine the difference between groups. All statistical analyzes were performed using SPSS version 16. Results: Data analysis showed that training and stem cell therapy have significantly increased in genes expression of FGF2 and MMP-13 in mice with osteoarthritis (p <0.000). Moreover, Tukey post hoc test showed a significant difference in the level of FGF2 changes in the training-stem cell groups compared to the training group and the saline group (p=0.000‌). There was also a significant difference between the MMP-13 follow-up test with the control group with the saline group, the training group and the stem cell with the train-stem cell, and the saline group with the training group9(P=0.000‌). Conclusion: The results showed that FGF2 levels and MMP13 in the cartilage tissue of mice with osteoarthritis have increased and endurance training and stem cells therapy caused a decrease in the level of factors.