earticle

영어

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether regular treadmill exercise after traumatic brain injury (TBI) positively affects the regener-ative environment in the motor cortex and hippocampus of the brain. Subjects were randomly divided into three groups: the normal control (Norm, n=8), the TBI+sedentary group (TBI+SED, n=8), and the TBI+ treadmill exercise group (TBI+Ex, n=8). Following a 2-week post-TBI recovery period, treadmill exercise was performed regularly for 4 weeks. The results showed that regular walking exercise after TBI increased the expression of growth associated protein-43 and tropomyosin recep-tor kinase-B, which are associated with neuronal survival, in both the motor cortex and hippocampus. The TBI+SED exhibited elevated glial fibrillary acidic protein and phosphorylated mammalian target of rapa-mycin signaling in both the motor cortex and hippocampus of the brain. In contrast, phosphorylated phosphatase and tensin homolog (p-PTEN) expression showed region-specific patterns: in the motor cortex, p-PTEN levels were higher in the TBI+SED than the Norm group and further increased following treadmill exercise, whereas in the hippocampus, p-PTEN expression decreased after TBI but was significantly elevated in the TBI+Ex group. These findings indicated that regular exercise after TBI might reduce glial scar formation and promote neural regeneration by elevating PTEN expression and inhibiting the mammalian target of rapamycin signaling pathway.