Downregulation of Pulmonary Genes P38-MAPK, NF-κB, and TGF-β after Aerobic Exercise and Nanoselenium Supplementation in Male Rats Induced by Cigarette Smoke Extract

Introduction: The present study aimed to assess the effect of aerobic exercise and nanoselenium supplementation on nuclear factor kappa light chain enhancer of activated B lymphocytes (NF-κB), mitogen-activated protein kinase P38 (P38-MAPK), and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-β) gene expression in the lung tissue of male rats induced by cigarette smoke extract (CSE). Method: In this experimental study, 40 healthy 6-week-old Wistar male rats with an average weight of 200-220 grams were assigned o five groups, including healthy control group, CSE, CSE+nanoselenium, CSE +aerobic interval training (AIT), and CSE+AIT+nanoselenium supplement. For the CSE group, cigarette smoke extract was injected once every seven days (150 μl by IP injection, one day per week for six weeks). Nanoselenium supplement was also given at the rate of 2.5 mg/kg body weight by gavage, 3 days/week for 6 weeks to the supplemented group. Aerobic interval training was also performed for 49 minutes per day, 5 days/week for 6 weeks as an interval for the training group. Results: Cigarette smoke extract significantly increased the expression of P38-MAPK, NF-κB, and TGF-β genes in the lungs of rats compared to the healthy control group (P<0.05). As a result of the two-way analysis variance test, the effect of pure training (P<0.05) and supplementation (P<0.05) was significant. Nonetheless, the interactive effect of supplemental training was not significant for P38-MAPK and NF-κB genes (P>0.05). On the contrary, the pure effect of training, the pure effect of supplementation, and the interaction effect for TGF-β gene expression were not significant (P>0.05). Conclusion: It seems that six weeks of exercise or supplementation can be effective in controlling cell damage caused by cigarette smoke, especially through the P38-MAPK/NF-κB pathway in lung tissue. Nevertheless, since the interactive effect of training and supplementation on this pathway was not significant, more studies with different doses and time periods are needed.