Paternal physical exercise modulates global DNA methylation status in the hippocampus of male rat offspring
Christiano Spindler
Ethiane Segabinazi
André Luís Ferreira de Meireles
Francele Valente Piazza
Filipe Mega
Gabriela dos Santos Salvalaggio
Matilde Achaval
Viviane Rostirola Elsner
Simone Marcuzzo
摘要：It is widely known that maternal physical exercise is able to induce beneficial improvements in offspring cognition; however, the effects of paternal exercise have not been explored in detail. The present study was designed to evaluate the impact of paternal physical exercise on memory and learning, neuroplasticity and DNA methylation levels in the hippocampus of male offspring. Adult male Wistar rats were divided into two groups: sedentary or exercised fathers. The paternal preconception exercise protocol consisted of treadmill running, 20 minutes daily, 5 consecutive days per week for 22 days, while the mothers were not trained. After mating, paternal sperm was collected for global DNA methylation analysis. At postnatal day 53, the offspring were euthanized, and the hippocampus was dissected to measure cell survival by 5-bromo-2′-deoxiuridine and to determine the expression of synaptophysin, reelin, brain-derived neurotrophic factor and global DNA methylation levels. To measure spatial memory and learning changes in offspring, the Morris water maze paradigm was used. There was an improvement in spatial learning, as well as a significant decrease in hip-pocampal global DNA methylation levels in the offspring from exercised fathers compared with those from sedentary ones; however, no changes were observed in neuroplasticity biomarkers brain-derived neurotroph-ic factor, reelin and 5-bromo-2′-deoxiuridine. Finally, the global DNA methylation of paternal sperm was not significantly changed by physical exercise. These results suggest a link between paternal preconception physical activity and cognitive benefit, which may be associated with hippocampal epigenetic programming in male offspring. However, the biological mechanisms of this modulation remain unclear.
机标关键词：
分类号：R493(康复医学)R394(医学遗传学)Q2(细胞生物学)
论文发表日期：2019-01-01
在线出版日期：2025-08-15（本平台首次上网日期，不代表文献的发表时间）
页数：10( 491-500 )
英文信息