The effect of aerobic exercise training on plasma apelin levels and pain threshold in T1DM rats

Abstract EN

Background : Diabetes mellitus (types 1 and 2) leads to secondary complications such as neuropathy, which reduce a patient’s quality of life.

Apelin and its receptor, APJ, have been shown to have antinociceptive effects and to decrease blood glucose levels.

Objectives : The present experimental study was conducted in Iran and investigated the role of apelin, which is used to manage type 1 diabetes mellitus, during exercise training.

Materials and Methods : Male Wistar rats (n = 36) were assigned by simple random allocation to six groups (n = 6): non-diabetic (ND), diabetic (D), sedentary non-diabetic (SND), sedentary diabetic (SD), exercise non-diabetic (END), and exercise diabetic (ED).

Diabetes was induced by a single subcutaneous injection of streptozotocin (50 mg / kg).

Exercise training consisted of treadmill running 60 minutes/day5 days/week for 10 weeks.

The tail-flick test was used to assess the thermal pain threshold, and an apelin enzyme immunoassay kit was utilized to assess plasma apelin levels.

Results: Plasma apelin level was higher (0.3 vs.

0.1, P < 0.0001) and the tail-flick latency was lower (2.2 vs.

3.8, P < 0.0001) in the D group than in the ND group.

After the training program, plasma apelin levels decreased in the exercise groups, and the tail-flick latency increased in the ED group.

No correlation was found between apelin blood concentrations and tail-flick latency following the training program in the ED group.

Conclusions : These findings suggest that apelin does not play any significant role in regulating the pain threshold in type 1 diabetes mellitus during exercise training.