Objectives: Cardiovascular disease is one of the leading causes of death in diabetic menopause women. Beneficial role of exercise training on these patients has been reported, but the effects of royal jelly (RJ) and exercise training is not well known. This study examines antioxidant effects of aerobic training (AT) and royal jelly (RJ) consumption on the aortic artery of ovariectomized STZ-induced diabetic rats.
Methods & Materials: Thirty ovariectomized rats (weight = 220-250 g and age= 22-26 weeks) with STZ-induced diabetic rats were divided into five groups including: (1) ovariectomized diabetic control (OVXD), (2) sham royal jelly solvent (Sh), (3) RJ, (4) AT, and (5) aerobic training + royal jelly (AT+RJ). To evaluate the effect of ovariectomization and induction of diabetes, 6 healthy rats were assigned in the healthy control (HC) group. Groups 4 and 5 trained for eight weeks, five sessions per week (55-75% maximum running speed), while groups 3 and 5 received 100 mg/kg/day RJ by peritoneal injection. One-way analysis of variance was used to analyze aortic tissue superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels (P≥0.05).
Results: SOD and GPx levels in the RJ, AT and AT+RJ groups were significantly higher than the OVXD group (P≥0.05). Also, MDA levels in the AT+RJ (P = 0.001) and RJ (P = 0.019) groups were significantly lower than the OVXD group (P≥0.05).
Conclusion: It seems that AT and RJ consumption alone and AT+RJ simultaneously to increase antioxidant effects of aortic artery during of ovariectomized STZ-induced diabetic rats.