Treadmill exercise improved adriamycin-induced nephropathy

Adriamycin nephropathy (AN) or doxorubicin-induced chronic kidney disease (DRCKD) has several strengths as an experimental model of renal diseases involving glomerulosclerosis, tubulointerstitial inflammation and fibrosis. Exercise has shown to be beneficial to many chronic diseases. We hypothesize that treadmill exercise may improve AN, and an investigation was carried out with the AN SD rat model. Treadmill exercise was conducted three times per week, each time for 30 and 60 min. DR induced swelling of glomeruli, collagen deposition in the interstitium and renal cortex, and increased the serum levels of MDA, IL-6, PDGF-BB, MMP-2, MMP-9, TGF-beta, p-PDGFR, uric acid, serum cholesterol, triglycerides, BUN, creatinine, blood platelet count, ratio of kidney to body weight, glomerular volume, and urinary BUN and protein. Conversely, levels of serum SOD, TNF-alpha, p-PI3K, p-Akt, albumin, WBC, RBC, and urinary creatinine were decreased. Treadmill exercise ameliorated most of these damaging effects, better outcome was found for the 60-min exercise training. Conclusively, the endurance exercise is more associated with the normalization of signaling expressions involving TGF-beta, PDGF-BB, p-PDGFR, p-PI3K, and p-Akt, which may help CKD patients to restore cell survival, proliferation, and growth. As rehabilitation is a personalized medicine, an appropriate design to fit individual feasibility has to be well figured out.