Abstract

We investigated the effects of treadmill exercise according to gender on spatial memory in old aged rats. Two month-old female rats and male rats were used as the young-aged groups, meanwhile 16-month-old female rats and male rats were used as the old-aged groups. The rats were divided into 8 groups (N=6 in each group): young-aged female control group, young-aged female exercise group, young-aged male control group, young-aged male exercise group, old-aged female control group, old-aged female exercise group, old-aged male control group, old-aged male exercise group. The rats in the exercise groups were forced to run on a motorized treadmill for 30 min once a day for 4 weeks. In old-aged rats, spatial memory was disturbed, in contrast treadmill exercise improved spatial memory in the old-aged rats. Neurogenesis in the hippocampus was decreased and apoptosis was increased in the old-aged rats. In contrast, treadmill exercise increased neurogensis and decreased apoptosis in the old-aged rats. Myostatin and follistatin expressions in the hippocampus were increased in the old-aged rats. Treadmill exercise suppressed myostatin and follistatin expressions in the old-aged rats. There was no gender difference in these effects of treadmill exercise. We showed that treadmill exercise is a very useful strategy for ameliorating age-induced memory loss by increasing neurogenesis through suppressing myostatin and follistatin expressions. (Korean J Str Res 2012;20:51∼60)

• Keywords: Aging, Treadmill exercise, Spatial memory, Neurogenesis, Apoptosis