The effect of eight weeks of interval and continuous endurance training on PGC-1α and FNDC5 gene expression in the gastrocnemius muscle of male Wistar rats

The purpose of this study was to investigate and compare the effect of eight weeks of continuous and interval training on PGC-1α and FNDC5 gene expression in the gastrocnemius muscle of male Wistar rats. 30 eight-week-old rats with an average weight of 192 ± 10 were randomly divided into 3 groups (n=10): control group (Ctrl), interval endurance training group (IET) and continuous endurance training group (CET). The exercise groups participated in 8 weeks of continuous or interval training program (5 days per week). 24 hours after the last training session, all the rats were anesthetized and their gastrocnemius muscles were collected and transferred to the laboratory to measure the mRNA levels of PGC-1α and FNDC5 genes by Real Time-PCR method. The results showed that the expression level of FNDC5 in the gastrocnemius muscle was significantly higher in the interval and continuous endurance training groups than in the control group. Also, the expression of this gene was higher in the interval group than in the continuous group. It was also found that the expression of PGC-1α gene was significantly increased in both training groups compared to the control group. Also, the expression of this gene increased significantly in the interval training group compared to the continuous. It seems that interval endurance training has a greater effect on the expression of PGC-1α and FNDC5 factors in the gastrocnemius muscle.