Pretreatment Hepatoprotective Effect of Regular Aerobic Training Against Hepatic Toxicity Induced by Doxorubicin In Rats

Background: Doxorubicin is an anthracycline antibiotic commonly used to treat a variety of cancers as a mosteffective antitumor. However, its clinical use is associated with the toxic effects in numerous healthy tissues. Herewe investigated the pretreatment effect of regular aerobic exercise on oxidative stress in rats acutely exposed toDOX-induced hepatotoxicity. Materials and
Methods: Forty-eight Wistar male rats were randomly divided into2 groups: control and training. The training protocol included treadmill running between 25 to 54 min/day and15 to 20m/min, 5 days/week for 6 weeks. At the end of the exercise training protocol, rats from the control andtrained groups were again randomly separated into 3 subgroups: DOX10mg/kg, DOX20mg/kg and saline. Alltreatments were carried 24 h after the last exercise bout and animals were sacrificed 24 h after DOX and salineinjections.
Results: Administration of DOX (10 and 20 mg.kg-1) resulted in imbalance in biomarkers related tooxidants and antioxidants in liver tissue, as compared to control groups. Six weeks of pretreatment training ledto a significant increase in nitric oxide (NO), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPX)as compared to the control+DOX 10 mg/kg group. Training before DOX 20 mg/kg administration also led to asignificant increase in NO and SOD, and a significant decrease in malondialdehyde (MDA). In addition, there wasa significant difference between DOX 10 mg/kg and DOX 20 mg/kg treatments in MDA levels, only.
Conclusions:The results of the present study indicate that pretreatment with aerobic exercise induces positive adaptationsand has a potential protective effect against doxorubicin (DOX)-induced hepatotoxicity with doses of 10 and 20mg.kg.