Chronic Swimming Exercise Ameliorates Low-Soybean-Oil Diet-Induced Spatial Memory Impairment by Enhancing BDNF-Mediated Synaptic Potentiation in Developing Spontaneously Hypertensive Rats

Exercise and low-fat diets are common lifestyle modifications used for the treatment of hypertension besides drug therapy. However, unrestrained low-fat diets may result in deficiencies of low-unsaturated fatty acids and carry contingent risks of delaying neurodevelopment. While aerobic exercise shows positive neuroprotective effects, it is still unclear whether exercise could alleviate the impairment of neurodevelopment that may be induced by certain low-fat diets. In this research, developing spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) were treated with chronic swimming exercise and/or a low-soybean-oil diet for 6 weeks. We found that performance in the Morris water maze was reduced and long-term potentiation in the hippocampus was suppressed by the diet, while a combination treatment of exercise and diet alleviated the impairment induced by the specific low-fat diet. Moreover, the combination treatment effectively increased the expression of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and N-methyl-d-aspartic acid receptor (NMDAR), which were both down-regulated by the low-soybean-oil diet in the hippocampus of developing SHR. These findings suggest that chronic swimming exercise can ameliorate the low-soybean-oil diet-induced learning and memory impairment in developing SHR through the up-regulation of BDNF and NMDAR expression.