Abstract: Objective To explore the protective effect of running on hippocampal plasticity in stroke rats and its biological mechanism. Methods Adult male rats underwent middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) for 90 minutes, and were randomly divided into exercise group and nonexercise group after 24 hours. Two weeks later, the neurological deficits of the rats were scored, the learning and memory functions of the rats were tested by the water maze. The cerebral infarction and brain histological damage of the rats were evaluated by the 2 3 5 triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining and HE staining, the neuronal damage of the rats was observed by NeuN staining. The expression levels of COX-2, IL-1β and TNF-α proteins were detected by Western blotting. Results The indexes for the neurological deficits and the learning and memory functions were improved in rats of the exercise group, and the volumes of the cerebral infarction in rats of the exercise group were smaller than those in rats of the non-exercise group after MCAO. Consistent with the above results, the number of damaged neurons in the brain tissues of rats in the exercise group was also significantly reduced, and the inflammatory response was suppressed in the brain tissues. Conclusion Our results show that exercise after MCAO improves neurological functions and reduces cerebral infarction volumes. The underlying mechanism is related to the protective effect of the inhibition of inflammation response on neurons.

Key words: cerebral ischemia-reperfusion, running, inflammation