Chronic Running Exercise Regulates Cytotoxic Cell Functions and Zinc Transporter SLC39A10/ZIP10 Levels in Diabetic Rats

The aim of this study is to investigate how chronic running exercise affects ZIP10 levels in thymus and spleen tissue as well as immune parameters in diabetic rats. A total of 40 adult male Wistar rats were divided into 4 equal groups: group 1, control; group 2, exercise control; group 3, diabetes; group 4, diabetes + exercise. Diabetes was induced by injecting intraperitoneal streptozotocin (STZ) at a dose of 40 mg/kg twice with 24-h intervals to the animals in groups 3 and 4. The animals in group 2 and group 4 underwent exercise for 45 min on the rat treadmill for 4 weeks at 20 m/min. Twenty-four hours after the last running exercise, the animals were sacrificed under general anesthesia. Immunological parameters were determined by flow cytometric method; tissue ZIP 10 levels were determined by ELISA method. The diabetic group had the lowest natural killer (NK) and natural killer T (NKT) cells percentages. Chronic exercise partially improved NK and NKT cell percentages in diabetic rats. The diabetic group had the lowest ZIP10 levels in spleen and thymus tissue. ZIP10 values in spleen and thymus tissue of diabetes exercise group were significantly higher than diabetes group. The results of our study show that the impaired cytotoxic cell functions in diabetes are partially corrected with 4 weeks of chronic exercise, and that the suppressed ZIP 10 levels in diabetic rats are reversed by 4 weeks of chronic exercise.