Long-term treadmill exercise overcomes ischemia-induced apoptotic neuronal cell death in gerbils

It has been suggested that exercise may ameliorate neurologic impairment by impeding neuronal loss following various brain insults. In the present study, the effect of long-term treadmill exercise on short-term memory and apoptotic neuronal cell death in the hippocampus following transient global ischemia in gerbils was investigated. A step-down inhibitory avoidance task, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay, and immunohistochemistry for caspase-3 were used for this study. Ischemia was induced by occlusion of both the common carotid arteries of gerbils for 5 min. Gerbils in the exercise groups were forced to run on a treadmill for 30 min once a day for 4 consecutive weeks. The present results reveal that treadmill exercise for 4 weeks improved short-term memory by suppressing the ischemia-induced apoptotic neuronal cell death in the hippocampus. Here in this study, we show that long-term treadmill exercise for 4 weeks overcomes the ischemia-induced apoptotic neuronal cell death and thus facilitates the recovery of short-term memory impairment induced by ischemic cerebral injury.