Objective: To test whether routine mild physical stress acts as a hormetic strategy against Parkinsonian symptoms among mice.

Background: Regular physical exercise is suggested to be enhancing the mitochondrial health among CNS neurons in terms of mitochondrial copy number and reduced oxidative stress. Mild sessions of exercise is thought improve the motor phenotype among Parkinson’s disease patients. However, experimental evidence for this hypothesis is none. Hence, here we set out to study the possible beneficial effects of daily exercise on the motor symptoms and dopaminergic neurodegeneration in chemically induced Parkinson’s disease among mice.

Methods: Male Swiss albino mice (12 wk old, n=3) were subjected to physical exercise by using a running wheel for 20 min (daily at 10 pm) for 4 weeks. The wheel running was voluntary for each mouse, however, the total period of 20 min was manually noted for each mouse. Mice were challenged with Rotenone (1mg/ kg bw/ d, ip) for the last 2 weeks. After total regimen period of four weeks, the mice were assessed for motor phenotype using stride length, locomotion in open field test and narrow beam test. Terminally the striatum and substantia nigra pars compacta were assessed for dopaminergic postive cells (Tyrosine hydroxylase immunoblot) and in situ oxidative stress markers.

Results: Mice subjected to routine exercise in the wheel manifested improved locomotion in open field test and demonstrated reduced stress in terms of increased rearing and exploratory behavior. Obvious phenotypic manifestations among Rotenone-mice like reduced stride length, increased beam walk latency were normalized with Routine Exercise. Further, Routine exercise significantly modulated Rotenone-induced complex I inhibition among mid brain mitochondrial fractions. Further, the Rotenone induced oxidative stress among striatum and substantia nigra were also ameliorated with routine exercise. In addition, the dopamine levels among Rotenone-mice striatum were also attenuated with Routine Exercise.

Conclusions: Our study, strongly supports routine mild exercise significantly reduced the Rotenone-induced Parkinson’s disease among mice model. This line of treatment will be considered for further assessment by using molecular markers to substantiate this observation.

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MDS Abstracts - https://www.mdsabstracts.org/abstract/neurohormetic-properties-of-mild-physical-stress-against-parkinsons-disease-phenotype/