The Effects of Exercise on Cognitive Impairment due to Metabolic and Epigenetic Dysregulation

Overview

The purpose of this experiment was to test whether exercise could mitigate neuroinflammation, epigenetic dysregulation, and memory loss caused by high-fat diet. Diets high in fat cause decreases in BDNF, GLUT-1, and GLUT-4 expression which can be linked to diabetic conditions. HDAC-1 is key in epigenetic regulation. TNF-alpha is a key regulator of inflammatory processes. High-fat diet (HFD) and high-fat diet plus exercise (HFD+EX) groups consumed a diet with 42% milk based fat, and the control (CTRL) and exercise groups (EX) consumed a diet with 6% fat. They exercised 5 days a week for 16 weeks. When Western Blotting expression of TNF-alpha, GLUT-1, and GLUT-4 was performed, both GLUT-1 and GLUT-4 expression increased in EX and HFD+EX groups and decreased in HFD showing improved metabolic regulation. TNF-alpha, an inflammation regulator, showed increased levels in HFD groups and lower levels in HFD+EX groups, indicating recovery of neuroinflammation. To measure memory loss, the spontaneous alterations test was completed, analyzing spatial memory. The novel object recognition test tested visual memory. Both showed a decreased cognitive ability in HFD groups and increased cognitive ability in both exercise groups (HFD+EX and EX), showing recovery of memory loss. After completing immunohistochemistry of BDNF and HDAC-1 expression, BDNF, a critical protein in recovery through exercise, showed an increase in HFD+EX groups, after decreasing in HFD groups. HDAC-1 levels decreased in HFD groups and increased in HFD+EX groups. Exercise positively promotes gene expression, mitigating memory loss, neuroinflammation, and epigenetic dysregulation due to a high-fat diet.

Competition history

• ISEF 2018 Biochemistry · Entry BCHM025

Resources

• ISEF abstract page ↗

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