Aging causes changes in the hippocampus that may lead to cognitive decline in older adults. In young animals, exercise increases hippocampal neurogenesis and improves learning. We investigated whether voluntary wheel running would benefit mice that were sedentary until 19 months of age. Specifically, young and aged mice were housed with or without a running wheel and injected with bromodeoxyuri...

Regular physical exercise has beneficial effects in many human disease states, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, and depression. Exercise training of genetically modified mouse models may provide insight into the molecular mechanisms that underlie the beneficial effects of exercise. Presently, there is relatively little understanding of the normal physiology of mouse exercise. In this ...

Aging causes changes in the hippocampus that may lead to cognitive decline in older adults. In young animals, exercise increases hippocampal neurogenesis and improves learning. We investigated whether voluntary wheel running would benefit mice that were sedentary until 19 months of age. Specifically, young and aged mice were housed with or without a running wheel and injected with bromodeoxyuri...

introduction: polycystic ovary syndrome (pcos) is one of the most common endocrinological pathologies in women during their reproductive years with ovulatory dysfunction, abdominal obesity, hyperandrogenism and insulin resistance. the aim of the present research was to evaluate the total antioxidant capacity (tac), total oxidant status (tos), free testosterone, ovarian morphology and estrous cy...

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a psychiatric illness characterized by excessively restricted caloric intake and abnormally high levels of physical activity. A challenging illness to treat, due to the lack of understanding of the underlying neurobiology, AN has the highest mortality rate among psychiatric illnesses. To address this need, neuroscientists are using an animal model to study how neural ci...

Loss of muscle mass related to anti-cancer therapy is a major concern in cancer patients, being associated with important clinical endpoints including survival, treatment toxicity and patient-related outcomes. We investigated effects of voluntary exercise during cisplatin treatment on body weight, food intake as well as muscle mass, strength and signalling. Mice were treated weekly with 4 mg/kg...

Previous results from our laboratory indicate that two nights of voluntary wheel running upregulates brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mRNA expression in the hippocampus. In order to investigate the time-course of the BDNF response and to examine how physical activity preferentially activates particular transcriptional pathways, the effects of 6 and 12 h of voluntary wheel running on BDN...

Background Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is the most frequent female endocrine disorder that affects 5-10% of women. PCOS is characterized by hyperandrogenism, oligo-/anovulation, and polycystic ovaries. The aim of the present research is to evaluate the expression of steroidogenic acute regulatory protein (StAR) and aromatase (CYP19) mRNA in the ovaries of an estradiol valerate (EV)-induc...

Background The antidepressant effect of physical exercise has been reported in several clinical and animal studies. Since serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine play a central role in depression, it is possible that the beneficial effects of physical exercise are mediated via monoamine pathways. This study investigates the effects of voluntary wheel running on the excitability of monoamine neu...