| Keywords |
Swimming ; Nicotine ; Pregnancy ; Hippocampus ; Synaptic plasticity factor |
| Abstract |
In the present study, we attempted to determine the effects of maternal swimming exercise and nicotine injection during pregnancy on spatial learning memory ability and synaptic plasticity neurotrophic factor in hippocampal in rat offspring. After confirming pregnancy, the pregnant rats were divided into four groups (n = 6 in each group): the control group (CG), the swimming group (EG), the nicotine-treated group (NCG), and the swimming and nicotine-treated group (NEG). The experimental animals received 1mg nicotine/kg maternal body weight/day during gestation and lactation (G&L). Beginning on the 7 day of pregnancy, the pregnant rats in the swimming group were forced to swim on a pool 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 = 12 in each group). Here in this study, we have shown that both synaptic-plasticity neurotrophic factor expression and PSD were suppressed in nicotine-treated rats, whereas swimming exercise alleviated the nicotine-induced suppression of both synaptic-plasticity neurotrophic factor expression and PSD in the hippocampus of rats. The results of the present study indicate that swimming exercise may facilitate recovery from the CNS complications associated with smoking by inducing enhanced the morphological development of synapses in the hippocampus via the augmentation of synaptic-plasticity neurotrophic factor expression in the hippocampus. |