The Effects of Interval Exercise and Thyme Honey on Cardiac Cells Proliferation and Differentiation of Type 2 Diabetic Male Rats

Background: Exercise and antioxidants are well known for the protection against the risk of diabetes. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of intermittent exercise and thyme honey on the proliferation and differentiation of cardiac cells in male rats with type 2 diabetes.Methods: This experimental study was performed on 36 male diabetic rats which were randomly divided into four groups: control (n = 8), HIIT (n = 10), thyme honey (n = 8) and HIIT*thyme honey (n = 10) groups. The HIIT intervention of 8 weeks, including 2 to 8 of intrmittent running for 2 mins at 80-90% VO2max and 1 min at 50-56% VO2max, was performed for 5 sessions per week. Additionally, 3 g/kg thyme honey was fed, 5 days/week, in supplement groups. Both Nkx2.5 and Tbx5 genes expression in heart tissue was measured by real-time RT-PCR. To evaluate the differences between the groups, ANOVA and LSD post hoc test were used with the significance level of P ≤ 0.05.Findings: Analysis revealed that expression of Nkx2.5, Gata4 and Tbx5 gene were significantly higher in HIIT compared with the control group whereas these findings were not repeated in Tbx5 and Nkx2.5 indices of the honey group (P > 0.05).Conclusion: The HIIT is associated with increased expression of Nkx2.5, Tbx5 and Gata4 (1)genes in heart tissue of diabetic rats, while thyme honey did not have similar benefits in diabetic rats.