Author(s)

Gabriella Marfe, Vincenzo Manzi, Marco Tafani, Bruna Pucci, Alessandra Gambacurta, Matteo Antonio Russo, Paola Sinibaldi-Salimei

Department of Cellular and Molecular Pathology, IRCCS San Raffaele Pisana, Rome, Italy.
Department of Experimental Medicine and Chirurgy, University of Rome “Tor Vergata”, Rome, Italy.
Department of Experimental Medicine, La Sapienza University, Rome, Italy.
School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of Rome Tor Vergata, Rome, Italy.
School of Sport and Exercise Sciences, University of San Raffaele, Rome, Italy.

A large body of evidence shows that a single bout of strenuous exercise induces oxidative stress in circu- lating human lymphocytes leading to lipid peroxide- tion, DNA damage, mitochondrial perturbations, and protein oxidation. In a training experiment, Wistar rats were divided into control group (CG) and exer- cise group (EG). After a running level exercise until exhaustion, we observed an increase in the mRNA content and protein expression of SIRT1 and SIRT7 in the EG compared to the CG. Moreover, such train- ing exercise did not change mRNA transcripts and protein expression of FOXO3A and GADD45. We also observed an increase of pro-apoptotic protein bax and a decrease of the anti-apoptotic protein bcl-2 in the EG. Accordingly, we observed a caspase-3 activation and poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) cleavage only in EG rats. Statistical analysis of the data showed a significant correlation between SIRT1 and SIRT7 expression and apoptotic proteins such as bax, bcl-2 in both tissues. We conclude that, in both muscle, such exercise activates both a damaging apoptotic mecha- nism with bax increase and bcl-2 decrease and a counterbalancing protective mechanism with SIRT1 and SIRT7 increase.

Cardiac Muscle; Skeletal Muscle; Bax; Bcl-2; SIRT1; SIRT7

Marfe, G. , Manzi, V. , Tafani, M. , Pucci, B. , Gambacurta, A. , Antonio Russo, M. and Sinibaldi-Salimei, P. (2012) The modulation of sirtuins and apoptotic proteins in rats after exhaustive exercise. Open Journal of Molecular and Integrative Physiology, 2, 65-74. doi: 10.4236/ojmip.2012.23010.