Kim Hong, Lee Sang-Hak, Kim Sung-Soo, Yoo Jae-Hyun, Kim Chang-Ju
Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, Kyung Hee University, #1 Hoigi-dong, Dongdaemoon-gu, Seoul 130-701, Republic of Korea.
Int J Dev Neurosci. 2007 Jun;25(4):243-9. doi: 10.1016/j.ijdevneu.2007.03.003. Epub 2007 Mar 18.
Maternal exercise during pregnancy has been suggested to exert the beneficial effects on the brain functions of offspring. In the present study, we attempted to determine the effects of maternal treadmill running during pregnancy on short-term memory ability, hippocampal cell survival, and the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) mRNA in rat pups. After confirming pregnancy, the pregnant rats were divided into two groups: the control group and the running group (n = 6 in each group). Beginning on the 15th day of pregnancy, the pregnant rats in the running group were forced to run on a treadmill for 30 min at a mild-intensity, once a day until delivery. After all the pregnant rats had given birth, there were rat pups available for use in this study in each group (n = 15 in each group). The latency of the step-down avoidance task was used in order to evaluate the short-term memory ability of the rat pups on the 28 days after birth. Immunohistochemistry for 5-bromo-2'-deoxyuridine (BrdU) and reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) for BDNF mRNA were performed to determine hippocampal neurogenesis and hippocampal BDNF mRNA expression of the rat pups on the 29 days after birth, respectively. Our results revealed that maternal running during pregnancy resulted in significant increase in the expression of BDNF mRNA, enhanced hippocampal cell survival, and improved the short-term memory capability of rat pups, as compared to those measured in the control group. The findings of our study provide evidence that maternal running during gestational period may enhance the brain functions of offspring.
孕期母体运动被认为对后代的脑功能具有有益影响。在本研究中，我们试图确定孕期母体在跑步机上跑步对幼鼠短期记忆能力、海马体细胞存活以及脑源性神经营养因子（BDNF）mRNA表达的影响。确认怀孕后，将怀孕大鼠分为两组：对照组和跑步组（每组n = 6）。从怀孕第15天开始，跑步组的怀孕大鼠被迫在跑步机上以轻度强度每天跑步30分钟，直至分娩。所有怀孕大鼠分娩后，每组均有可供本研究使用的幼鼠（每组n = 15）。采用避暗回避任务潜伏期来评估幼鼠出生后28天的短期记忆能力。分别在出生后29天进行5-溴-2'-脱氧尿苷（BrdU）免疫组化和BDNF mRNA逆转录-聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR），以确定幼鼠的海马神经发生和海马BDNF mRNA表达。我们的结果显示，与对照组相比，孕期母体跑步导致BDNF mRNA表达显著增加，海马体细胞存活增强，幼鼠短期记忆能力提高。我们的研究结果提供了证据，表明孕期母体跑步可能增强后代的脑功能。
