PMID- 25203492 OWN - NLM STAT- MEDLINE DCOM- 20150909 LR - 20220311 IS - 1473-7760 (Electronic) IS - 1052-0295 (Linking) VI - 90 IP - 1 DP - 2015 Jan TI - Effects of voluntary and involuntary exercise on cognitive functions, and VEGF and BDNF levels in adolescent rats. PG - 55-68 LID - 10.3109/10520295.2014.946968 [doi] AB - Regular treadmill running during adolescence improves learning and memory in rats. During adolescence, the baseline level of stress is thought to be greater than during other periods of life. We investigated the effects of voluntary and involuntary exercise on the prefrontal cortex and hippocampus, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels, and spatial learning, memory and anxiety in adolescent male and female rats. The voluntary exercise group was given free access to a running wheel for 6 weeks. The involuntary exercise group was forced to run on a treadmill for 30 min at 8 m/min 5 days/week for 6 weeks. Improved learning was demonstrated in both exercise groups compared to controls. Neuron density in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, dentate gyrus and prefrontal cortex were increased. Hippocampal VEGF and BDNF levels were increased in both exercise groups compared to controls. In females, anxiety and corticosterone levels were decreased; BDNF and VEGF levels were higher in the voluntary exercise group than in the involuntary exercise group. The adolescent hippocampus is affected favorably by regular exercise. Although no difference was found in anxiety levels as a result of involuntary exercise in males, females showed increased anxiety levels, and decreased VEGF and BDNF levels in the prefrontal cortex after involuntary exercise. FAU - Uysal, N AU - Uysal N AD - Department of Physiology, Dokuz Eylul University , Balcova, Izmir , Turkey. FAU - Kiray, M AU - Kiray M FAU - Sisman, A R AU - Sisman AR FAU - Camsari, U M AU - Camsari UM FAU - Gencoglu, C AU - Gencoglu C FAU - Baykara, B AU - Baykara B FAU - Cetinkaya, C AU - Cetinkaya C FAU - Aksu, I AU - Aksu I LA - eng PT - Journal Article DEP - 20140909 PL - England TA - Biotech Histochem JT - Biotechnic & histochemistry : official publication of the Biological Stain Commission JID - 9107378 RN - 0 (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor) RN - 0 (Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A) SB - IM MH - Aging MH - Animals MH - Anxiety/*metabolism MH - Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor/*metabolism MH - Cognition/*physiology MH - Female MH - Hippocampus/*metabolism MH - Learning/physiology MH - Male MH - Memory/physiology MH - Neurons/metabolism MH - Physical Conditioning, Animal MH - Prefrontal Cortex/metabolism MH - Rats, Wistar MH - Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A/*metabolism OTO - NOTNLM OT - BDNF OT - VEGF OT - adolescent OT - anxiety OT - exercise OT - hippocampus OT - learning OT - memory OT - prefrontal cortex EDAT- 2014/09/10 06:00 MHDA- 2015/09/10 06:00 CRDT- 2014/09/10 06:00 PHST- 2014/09/10 06:00 [entrez] PHST- 2014/09/10 06:00 [pubmed] PHST- 2015/09/10 06:00 [medline] AID - 10.3109/10520295.2014.946968 [doi] PST - ppublish SO - Biotech Histochem. 2015 Jan;90(1):55-68. doi: 10.3109/10520295.2014.946968. Epub 2014 Sep 9.