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The Effects of Early Exercise on Motor, Sense, and Memory Recovery in Rats With Stroke
Liqiang Yang1, Jie Zhang, Yihao Deng
1From the Medical Faculty, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China (LY, YD, PZ); and Yunnan Provincial Key Laboratory for Birth Defects and Genetic Diseases, Genetic Diagnosis Center, and The First People's Hospital of Yunnan Province, Kunming, China (JZ).
Objective:
Exercise is an effective, inexpensive, home-based, and accessible intervention strategy for stroke treatment, and early exercise after stroke has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. However, the effects of early exercise on comprehensive functional recovery remain poorly understood. The present study investigated the effect of early exercise on motor, sense, balance, and spatial memory recovery.
Design:
Adult Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to unilateral middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) and were randomly divided into early exercise group (EE), non-exercise group (NE), and sham group. EE group received 2 weeks of exercise training initiated at 24 hours after operation. The recovery of motor, sense, and balance function was evaluated every 3 days after MCAO. Spatial memory recovery was detected from 21 to 25 days after MCAO.
Results:
The results showed that early exercise significantly promoted the motor and spatial memory recovery with statistical differences. The rats in EE group have a better recovery in sense and balance function, but there is no statistically significant difference about these results.
Conclusion:
Our results showed that early moderate exercise can significantly promote motor and spatial memory recovery, but not the sense and balance functions.
