Exercise preconditioning modulates genotoxicity induced by doxorubicin in multiple organs of rats

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of exercise in multiple organs of rats treated with doxorubicin. Male adult Wistar rats were distributed into the following groups: sedentary + NaCl; exercise + NaCl; sedentary + doxorubicin; and exercise + doxorubicin. Animals were sacrificed 2 days following injections. Central fragments from heart, liver, and kidney were collected and minced in 0.9% NaCl being cellular suspensions used for the single-cell gel (comet) assay. The results showed that exercise was able to prevent genotoxicity induced by doxorubicin in heart cells. By contrast, exercise was not able to prevent genotoxicity induced by doxorubicin in liver cells. The same occurred to kidney cells, i.e. no statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) were found when compared with groups not exposed to doxorubicin. Taken together, our results support the idea that exercise could contribute to the protective effect against genotoxicity induced by doxorubicin in heart cells.