Abstract

Vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) plays an important role in physiologic and pathophysiological angiogenesis.The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of eight weeks of endurance training and curcumin supplementation on VEGF levels in the liver of rats that were exposed to lead acetate. In order to assess the effects of lead, regular endurance exercise and curcumin supplementation on VEGF protein on the liver tissue, 60 male Wistar rats were classified randomly in to 6 groups. These groups are consisted of 2 control group, base and vehicle, two training groups included training + lead and training + curcumin+ lead and two non-exercise groups included curcumin + lead and lead group. Exercise training program for training groups consisted of running on a treadmill without slope for 25-64 minutes with velocity that starts with 15 meters per minute and was increased to 22 meters per minute and was administered for 8 weeks. Measurement was performed by VEGF ELISA kit. The result was assessed using Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, ANOVA and independent t-test and LSD at P<0/05.
The results showed that the intraperitoneal injections lead to increased levels of lead in the lead group, while the VEGF levels only significantly decrease in the Curcumin + lead groups, compared with other groups(P<0/001). Findings from this study showed that a healthy lifestyle includes the use of anti-oxidation supplements with regular endurance exercise may have beneficial effects in preventing oxidative damage caused by lead.