Mild, moderate, and vigorous physical activity are associated with decreased risks of Alzheimers disease, Parkinsons disease, and a decreased infarct from stroke. Physical activity increases neurogenesis in the hippocampus and upregulates neurotrophic factors throughout the brain, but it largely has been understudied in motor brain regions related to Parkinsons disease. We hypothesized that aerobic exercise would be protective against a MPTP lesion in Rhesus monkeys. We used three cohorts of monkeys to study gene expression associated with physical activity and exercise in motor regions of the brain: (1) spontaneously physically active rhesus monkeys, (2) exercised rhesus monkeys, and (3) spontaneously physically active and exercised rhesus monkeys before and after receiving a MPTP lesion. We found that physical activity as measured by accelerometers predicts the size the MPTP lesion, as monkeys with high levels of physical activity were protected from the lesion. Furthermore, the activity-associated neuroprotective gene expression signature involved transcripts associated with chromatin remodeling, neuronal survival, and specifically syntaxin 3. These studies suggest that being physically active is protective against Parkinsons disease.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:VANDERBILT/oai:VANDERBILTETD:etd-11212011-105343 |
| Date | 09 December 2011 |
| Creators | Mitchell, Amanda Christine |
| Contributors | Karoly Mirnics, Christine Konradi, Judy L. Cameron, Aaron Bowman |
| Publisher | VANDERBILT |
| Source Sets | Vanderbilt University Theses |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.vanderbilt.edu/available/etd-11212011-105343/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to Vanderbilt University or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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