Exercise training and experimental diabetes modulate heat shock protein response in brain

In diabetes, defense systems against cellular stress are impaired. Heat shock proteins (HSPs) function primarily as molecular chaperones. Factors that raise tissue HSP levels may slow progression of diabetes and improve diabetic complications that also affect brain tissue. This study tested the effect of an 8-week exercise training on brain HSP response in rats with or without streptozotocin-induced diabetes (SID). In untrained animals, the HSP levels were not different between SID and non-diabetic groups. Endurance training, however, increased HSP72 and HSP90 protein in non-diabetic rats, whereas SID significantly decreased the effect of training on these HSPs. At the mRNA level, HSP60, HSP90 and GRP75 were increased due to training, whereas HSP72 mRNA was only increased in exercise-trained diabetic animals. Training or diabetes had no effect on protein carbonyl content, a marker of oxidative damage. Altogether, our findings suggest that endurance training increases HSP expression in the brain, and that experimental diabetes is associated with an incomplete HSP response at the protein level.