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Muscle gene expression of CGRP-α, CGRP receptor, nAchR-β, and GDNF in response to different endurance training protocols of Wistar rats

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Abstract

The neuromuscular junction underwent adaptations to meet the demands of muscles following increased muscle activity. This study aimed to investigate the effects of high-intensity interval training (HIIT), endurance training (END), and mixed interval training (MIX) on the gene expression of the calcitonin gene-related peptide-α (CGRP-α), CGRP receptor, nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAchR)-β and glial-derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF) among different muscle types. Male Wistar rats were randomly divided into four groups: Control (n = 8), END (n = 8), HIIT (n = 8), and MIX (n = 8). The animals run each training protocol for 8 weeks (five sessions/week). Forty-eight hours after the last training session, the muscles gastrocnemius and soleus were excised under the sterilized situation. After collection, the material was prepared for RNA extraction, Reverse Transcriptase reaction, and qPCR assay. The HIIT training up-regulated the CGRP-α (p < 0.01), CGRP-Rec (p < 0.01), and GDNF (p < 0.01) in soleus as well as the nAchR-β (p < 0.01) and GDNF (p < 0.01) in gastrocnemius muscles. END training down-regulated the gene expression of CGRP-α (p < 0.01), and nAchR-β (p < 0.01) in gastrocnemius but up-regulated nAchR-β (p = 0.037) in soleus and GDNF (p  < 0.01) in gastrocnemius muscles. MIX training did not show any significant up or down-regulation. The endurance performance of HIIT and MIX groups was higher than the END group (p < 0.01). All studied genes up-regulated by HIIT training in a muscle type-specific manner. It seems that the improvement of some synaptic indices induced by HIIT resulted in the improvement of endurance performance.

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Acknowledgements

Part of this project (qPCR analysis) was performed at the Division of Clinical Physiology, Department of Laboratory Medicine, Karolinska Institutet (KI), SWEDEN. We thank Professor Brun Ulfhake, Dr. Mikael Altun, and Professor Thomas Gustafsson. We would also like to thank Professor Dr. Enrico Gori for his help in the final analysis of the text.

Funding

Firooz Jamshidi has received research grants from the University of Zanjan. Ali Gorzi’s works on KI were supported by funding from Karolinska Institute-Sweden.

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  1. Department of Sport Sciences, University of Zanjan, P.O. Box: 45371-38791, Zanjan, Iran

    Ali Gorzi, Firooz Jamshidi & Ahmad Rahmani

  2. Department of Physical Education, Laboratory of Morphoquantitative Studies and Immunohistochemistry, Universidade São Judas Tadeu, São Paulo, Brazil

    Walter Krause Neto

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  1. Ali Gorzi
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Correspondence to Ali Gorzi.

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The Institutional Animal Ethics Committee approved this work of the University of Zanjan, and all guidelines were followed (protocol code: ZNU.ECRA.2018–1). The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Gorzi, A., Jamshidi, F., Rahmani, A. et al. Muscle gene expression of CGRP-α, CGRP receptor, nAchR-β, and GDNF in response to different endurance training protocols of Wistar rats. Mol Biol Rep 47, 5305–5314 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11033-020-05610-4

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