The aerobic maternal exercise increases PDK4 gene expression in slow and fast twitch muscles of rat male offspring.

Recent studies indicate that environment can modify skeletal muscle gene expression and transcriptional factors in offspring genes. Therefore, exercising can lead to changes in the gene expression of the future generations. One of the important metabolic factors is PDK4, which is known as the main factor in Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Complex (PDC). This study examined the effects of maternal exercise on PDK4 expression in slow and fast twitch (soleus and EDL) muscles of male offspring. Twenty Sprague-Dawley rats were divided to three training groups: before pregnancy (TBP), during pregnancy (TDP) and before and during pregnancy (TBDP) and pregnancy without training (control) group. Training groups were running on a treadmill for four, three and seven weeks, respectively. Two months after the birth of the offspring, 6 male rats were chosen randomly from the offspring of each group. The samples were anesthetized using Ketamine (90 mg/kg) and Xylazine (10 mg/kg) and their soleus and EDL muscles were removed immediately for examine. Gene expression of offspring muscles were analyzed using real-time RT-PCR. Fisher test were used to analyze the difference between the training and the control group. PDK4 expression of offspring were significantly increased in all groups except for EDL muscle of the TBP group. According to the results, it seems likely maternal exercise training can affect the metabolic regulation in the offspring by increasing the expression of some metabolic genes.