Small-for-pregnancy-age rats submitted to exercise: DNA damage in mothers and newborns, measured by the comet assay

Abstract

Fetal impairment caused by a deleterious intrauterine environment may have long-term consequences, such as oxidative stress and genetic damage. Rats born as small-for-gestational-age (SPA) were submitted to exercise (swimming) before and during pregnancy. The animals exhibited glucose intolerance, reduced general adiposity, and increased maternal and offspring organ weight, showing the benefit of exercise for these rats. We hypothesised that regular exercise in SPA during gestation could prevent DNA damage in these animals and in their offspring, contributing to altered fetal programming of metabolism in the offspring. Severe diabetes was induced by streptozotocin treatment, to obtain SPA newborns. At adulthood, pregnant SPA rats were randomly distributed into two groups: exercised (SPAex - submitted to swimming program) or not-exercised (SPA - sedentary rats). Post-partum, blood was collected for analysis of DNA damage (comet assay) and oxidative stress. SPAex rats presented lower DNA damage levels, decreased lipid peroxidation, and a lower rate of newborns classified as large-for-pregnancy-age. DNA damage was also lower in SPAex newborns. We conclude that swimming applied to SPA pregnant rats contributes to decreased DNA damage and lipid peroxidation in the dams, and decreased DNA damage and macrosomia in their offspring.

Regulation of redox profile and genomic stability by physical exercise contributes to neuroprotection in mice with experimental glioblastoma.

“…Our results showed that the group that received GL261 cells and did not exercise had higher tail intensity in hepatocytes compared with the trained sham and GBM groups, indicating greater DNA damage, which has been previously observed in studies that associate comet assay and physical exercise. Groups that exercise have lower DNA damage compared with groups that do not exercise [53,54].…”