Swimming exercise during pregnancy alleviates pregnancy-associated long-term memory impairment

Regular exercise has been shown to be beneficial to the brain functions, but little is known about the effects of exercise during pregnancy on the long-term memory function of the mothers. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of swimming during pregnancy on long-term memory function in rats on postpartum day 8. We examined the impact of swimming exercise during pregnancy on cell proliferation and apoptotic neuronal cell death in the hippocampus of peripartum rats. The rats were divided into three groups: the control group, the pregnant non-swimming group, and the pregnant swimming group. We found that pregnancy impaired the long-term memory while swimming during pregnancy alleviated the memory impairment. Pregnancy decreased cell proliferation in the dentate gyrus of the hippocampus, but swimming exercise during pregnancy reversed pregnancy-associated decreased cell proliferation back to control level. There was no difference in apoptotic neuronal cell death in the hippocampus among groups. Our results suggest that swimming during pregnancy alleviates pregnancy-associated decrease in memory function of mothers through an increase in cell proliferation in the hippocampus.