Research articleThe ameliorative effects of exercise on cognitive impairment and white matter injury from blood-brain barrier disruption induced by chronic cerebral hypoperfusion in adolescent rats

- Treadmill exercise alleviated the cognitive impairment induced by CCH.
- Treadmill exercise prevents myelin degradation and damage to microvessels in the motor cortex and hippocampus after CCH.
- Treadmill exercise may provide protective effects on BBB disruption from overexpression of MMP-9 induced by CCH.
- Exercise may improve ischemic neurological disorders by reducing white matter injury and BBB disruption from overexpression of MMP-9 in the brain.

Vascular dementia is the progressive change in blood vessels that leads to neuronal injuries in vulnerable areas induced by chronic cerebral hypoperfusion (CCH). CCH induces disruption of blood-brain barrier (BBB), and this BBB disruption can initiate the cognitive impairment and white matter injury. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of treadmill exercise on the cognitive impairment, white matter injury, and BBB disruption induced by CCH. Vascular dementia was induced by permanent bilateral common carotid arteries occlusion (BCCAO) in rats. The rats in the exercise group were made to run on a treadmill for 30 min once a day for 14 weeks, starting 4 weeks after birth. Our results revealed that treadmill exercise group was alleviated the cognitive impairment and myelin degradation induced by CCH. The disruption of BBB after CCH indicates degradation of occludin, zonula occluden-1 (ZO-1), and up-regulation of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Treadmill exercise may provide protective effects on BBB disruption from degradation of occludin, ZO-1, and overexpression of MMP-9 after CCH. These findings suggest that treadmill exercise ameliorates cognitive impairment and white matter injury from BBB disruption induced by CCH in rats. The present study will be valuable for means of prophylactic and therapeutic intervention for patients with CCH.