Effects of Exercise Preconditioning on the Expression of NGF, SynapsinI, and ChAT in the Hippocampus of Socially Isolated Rats

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of exercise preconditioning (EPC) on nerve growth factor (NGF), synapsinI, and choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) in the hippocampus of rats subjected to social isolation (SI). We randomly assigned four groups of male Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats (n=32) to the following treatments: GC: group housing control; IC: isolation control; GE: group housing exercise; IE: isolation exercise (n=8 each group). The rats underwent EPC 5 days a week for 8 weeks, and the speed of the treadmill was gradually increased (grade 0°C). After EPC, they were immediately subjected to SI for 8 weeks. The results showed that the protein levels of NGF, synapsinI, and ChAT in the hippocampus were significantly decreased in the IC group (p <0.05) compared with the GC group. However, these protein levels were significantly higher in the IE group (p <0.05). These results show that EPC may buffer the decline of function in the hippocampus by ameliorating the reduction in NGF, synapsin I, and ChAT induced by SI.