Background: An area of concern for older adult patients with diabetes is the diabetic cardiomyopathy which develops due to oxidative stress, inflammation, and metabolic disorders. It is quite clear that current therapies do not sufficiently address the multifactorial problems; therefore, we studied the combined effects of aerobic exercise (AE) and Chromium picolinate (CrPic) supplementation on cardiac injury related genes.
Methods: Fifty male Wistar rats (22 months) were enrolled in groups of healthy control (G1), diabetic control (G2), and three intervention groups (G3-G5: AE+CrPic, AE only, CrPic only, respectively). Diabetes was induced through streptozotocin (STZ), while; all rats underwent 10 weeks of AE (treadmill training) and/or CrPic (1 mg/kg/day). The expression of cardiac genes was measured by qRT-PCR.
Results: G2 presented an increased TNFR1 expression (p<0.0001 vs. G1), decreased levels of VEGF (p<0.0001), VEGFA (p=0.01) and CD147 (p=0.005). AE+CrPic demonstrated the greatest reduction in TNFR1 expression in G3 (p=0.002 vs. G2) and outperforming of G4 and G5 monotherapies (p=0.01 and p=0.005, respectively). AE significantly restored VEGF level near to normalization (p=0.004 vs. G2), and further enhancement by CrPic (1.8-fold increase, p<0.0001). CD147 was significantly upregulated in G3 (p=0.01 vs. G2). MCT1 showed negligible baseline expression; but an elevation trend was noticed in G3 (p=0.07).
Conclusion: Combining AE and CrPic may work simultaneously to reduce the effects of diabetic cardiomyopathy by lessening inflammation (TNFR1), restoring angiogenesis (VEGF and VEGFA), as well as increasing metabolic flexibility (CD147).