Investigation of the RBP4 and GLUT4 gene expression in skeletal muscle of STZ induced diabetic rats following aerobic exercise training

Background: Type2 diabetes is a metabolic disease that is rapidly increasing in the world. GLUT4 and RBP4 are factors that play a role in glucose uptake. This study aimed to investigate the effect of moderate-intensity continuous training on RBP4 and GLUT4 gene expression of soleus muscle in STZ induced diabetic rats. Methods: This experimental study was conducted between May and September 2016 at Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences. In this study, there were 48 8-week-old male Wistar rats (mean weight 250±20) that were randomly divided into four groups: basic control, 12-week control, diabetes, diabetes and moderate continuous training. Diabetes was induced by injection of streptozotocin solution. The training protocol consisted of continuous aerobic training for 12 weeks, five sessions per week in the form of running on a treadmill. After sampling, real-time PCR expression was used to measure gene expression. Statistical analysis was performed by SPSS software, version 22 (IBM SPSS, Armonk, NY, USA) and graphs were drawn using GraphPad Prism, version 8, (GraphPad Software, USA). Results: According to the results, there was a significant increase in RBP4 in the diabetic group compared to other groups. compared to the two groups of diabetes and diabetes, along with moderate continuous training, RBP4 gene expression was less expressed in diabetic training. Regarding GLUT4, there was a significant difference between diabetes and diabetes groups with training. Also, the expression of the GLUT4 gene in the diabetic group with training was higher than the other groups. According to this study, it was shown that moderate-intensity continuous training somehow reduces the negative effects of diabetes on metabolism and health by activating various cellular and molecular pathways and mechanisms. Conclusion: the present study showed the effect of moderate-intensity continuous training on the expression of RBP4 and GLUT4 genes in soleus muscle which can be effective in glucose uptake. It was also shown that moderate-intensity continuous training can minimize the complications of diabetes by reducing RBP4 gene expression.