Differential expression of the cerebral cortex proteome in physically trained adult rats

• The expression of proteins in the cerebral cortex in response to swimming training was investigated.
• Two dimensional proteomics approach was employed.
• There was a decrease in body weight in response to swimming training.
• There was an up-regulation of key proteins involved in metabolism, cellular integrity and synaptic transmission.

Exercise has beneficial effects on brain function, including the promotion of plasticity and the enhancement of learning and memory performance. To further explore the molecular changes in the protein expression levels in the cerebral cortex of physically trained rats, male Wistar rats 8 months old were selected and subjected to swimming training in a rectangular glass tank for 30 min/day, 6 days/week and 3% of load for 4 weeks. Two dimensional gel electrophoresis followed by mass spectrometrical identification assigning spots to proteins and determination of coomassie-densities of the protein spots were carried out. The up-regulated spots were found to be statistically significant with a p-value of <0.05. Proteins related to energy metabolism like GAPDH and ATP synthase and synaptic plasticity related proteins like actin, tubulin and 14-3-3 zeta/delta were up-regulated in the cerebral cortex of swim trained rats. Thus, our results suggest that exercise elicits a differential protein expression pattern with significant changes in proteins relevant to cortical function and these proteins may be incorporated with neuronal recovery in terms of neurite formation and remodeling of synaptic connections.