Effect of Aerobic Physical Exercise in an Animal Model of Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is a condition caused by an amendment to the X chromosome, inherited as a recessive trait, and affects 1:3500 live births, especially males. Low-intensity exercise is known to decrease certain parameters associated with muscular degeneration in animal models of progressive muscular dystrophies. In the present study, 28-day-old male mdx and wild-type (wild) mice were used. The animals were subjected to a low-intensity physical exercise protocol for 8 weeks. It was found that this protocol was able to reduce oxidative stress in muscle tissue and in most of the CNS structures analyzed, with a significant increase in antioxidant activity in all analyzed structures. It is thus possible to infer that this exercise protocol was able to reduce oxidative stress and improve the energy metabolism in brain tissue and in the gastrocnemius muscle of animals with DMD.