RESUMO
Short and long-term physical exercise induce physiological and structural changes in brain motor areas. The relationship between changes of structural and synaptic proteins in brain motor areas and acrobatic exercise is less understood. Our aim was to evaluate the expression of synapsin I (SYS), synaptophysin (SYP), microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2), neurofilament (NF), and a marker for recent neuronal activity (Egr-1) in the motor cortex, striatum and cerebellum of adult rats subjected to acrobatic exercise (AE, for 1-4 weeks). We used adult Wistar rats, divided into 4 groups based on duration of acrobatic training, namely 1 week (AE1, n=15), 2 weeks (AE2, n=15), 4 weeks (AE4, n=15), and sedentary (SED, n=15). In AE groups, the rats covered 5 times a circuit that was composed of obstacles, three times a week. The protein levels were analyzed by immunoblotting and immunohistochemistry. The results revealed that short-term AE (AE1 and AE2) induced MAP2 decreases and NF, SYP and Egr-1 increases in the motor cortex; an increase of MAP2, SYS and SYP in the dorsolateral striatum, whereas the dorsomedial striatum showed increased NF, SYS, SYP and Egr-1. Granular cerebellar layer showed increased NF and Egr-1, with increased NF and SYP in the molecular layer. Long-term AE (AE4) promoted an increase of MAP2, SYP and Egr-1 in motor cortex; MAP2, SYS and SYP in the dorsomedial striatum; and NF and Egr-1 in the cerebellar granular layer. In conclusion, our data suggest that different durations of AE induce distinct plastic responses among distinct cortical and subcortical circuits.
Assuntos
Córtex Motor/metabolismo , Plasticidade Neuronal/fisiologia , Condicionamento Físico Animal/fisiologia , Animais , Fator Neurotrófico Derivado do Encéfalo/metabolismo , Cerebelo/metabolismo , Proteína 1 de Resposta de Crescimento Precoce/metabolismo , Regulação da Expressão Gênica/fisiologia , Masculino , Camundongos , Proteínas Associadas aos Microtúbulos/metabolismo , Ratos , Sinapsinas/metabolismo , Sinaptofisina/metabolismo , Fatores de TempoRESUMO
The plastic brain responses generated by the training with acrobatic exercise (AE) and with treadmill exercise (TE) may be different. We evaluated the protein expression of synapsin I (SYS), synaptophysin (SYP), microtubule-associated protein 2 (MAP2) and neurofilaments (NF) by immunohistochemistry and Western blotting in the motor cortex, striatum and cerebellum of rats subjected to TE and AE. Young adult male Wistar rats were divided into 3 groups: sedentary (Sed) (n=15), TE (n=20) and AE (n=20). The rats were trained 3 days/week for 4 weeks on a treadmill at 0.6 km/h, 40 min/day (TE), or moved through a circuit of obstacles 5 times/day (AE). The rats from the TE group exhibited a significant increase of SYS and SYP in the motor cortex, of NF68, SYS and SYP in the striatum, and of MAP2, NF and SYS in the cerebellum, whereas NF was decreased in the motor cortex and the molecular layer of the cerebellar cortex. On the other hand, the rats from the AE group showed a significant increase of MAP2 and SYP in the motor cortex, of all four proteins in the striatum, and of SYS in the cerebellum. In conclusion, AE induced changes in the expression of synaptic and structural proteins mainly in the motor cortex and striatum, which may underlie part of the learning of complex motor tasks. TE, on the other hand, promoted more robust changes of structural proteins in all three regions, especially in the cerebellum, which is involved in learned and automatic tasks.