Background: Diabetes is the most common glandular disease in the world and various ways are used to treat it. The purpose of the present study was to determine the effect of a period of increased aerobic training and consumption of L-carnitine on some inflammatory factors in the cardiac tissue of type 2 diabetic rats.
Methods: For this purpose, 45 male Wistar rats weighing 250 to 300 g were selected and randomly divided into six groups of sham (8 rats), healthy controls (8 rats), diabetic control (8 rats), diabetic receiving L-carnitine (8 rats), diabetic aerobic training (8 rats), and diabetic aerobic training and L-carnitine intake (8 rats). Rats were made diabetic by subcutaneous injection of nicotine amide (95 mg/kg) and after 15 minutes with Streptozocin (STZ) injection (55 mg/kg). Rats receiving L-carnitine received 100 mg of L-carnitine daily orally. The aerobic training groups also performed an aerobic exercise program on the treadmill, 5 days a week, from 9 am to 11 am for six weeks. 24 hours after the last training session, rats were anesthetized using chloroform and cardiac tissue removed after dissection. Dependent variables were measured by ELISA and assay kits in heart tissue. Chi-square test, one-way ANOVA and Tukey post hoc test at the significant level of 0.05 was used for data analysis.
Results: The results showed that aerobic training and consumption of L-carnitine had significant effect on IL-10 (p=0.028) and TNF-α (p=0.036) in diabetic rats.
Conclusion: The results of the present study seem to confirm the role of aerobic exercise and L-carnitine in improving apoptosis and oxidative stress indices in type 2 diabetic rats. But they should be prescribed in consultation with a physician.