Effect of a Six-week Endurance Exercise Program and Empagliflozin Consumption on Some Structural and Functional Indices of the Heart in Male Diabetic Rats

Introduction: Type 2 diabetes is a major risk factor for cardiovascular diseases.Endurance training and empagliflozin were reported to have notable effects on heart structure and function.This study aimed to investigate the effect of six weeks of endurance training and empagliflozin intake on some structural and functional indicators of the heart in diabetic male rats. Material & Methods:In this study, a total of 40 male Wistar rats (mean±SD weight: 253.09±12.92g, aged: 8-10 weeks) were randomly divided into five equal groups, 1) healthy control, 2) diabetic control, 3) diabetic+empagliflozin, 4) diabetic+endurance training, and 5) diabetic+endurance training+empagliflozin and kept in laboratory conditions.Induction of diabetes was performed in rats after completion of the familiarization protocol for two weeks and after 12 h of food deprivation by intraperitoneal injection of streptozotocin (STZ) solution at a dose of 50 mg /kg.The glucose level of 300 mg/dL was considered diabetic.The training groups practiced endurance training, five days per week for six weeks.The drug groups also received empagliflozin (10 mg/kg) daily by gavage.The animals were anesthetized 48 h after the end of the protocol and cardiac function was recorded using echocardiography.Subsequently, cardiac tissue was isolated and dissected.One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for statistical analysis of data in SPSS software (version 27) and Graph Pad Prism software (version 9).(Ethic code: LU.ECRA.2021.63)Findings: The results showed significant differences between study groups in terms of left ventricular end-systolic thickness (P=0.011) and left ventricular end-systolic volume (P=0.008).The results of the post-hoc test showed that left ventricular end-systolic thickness in the diabetic control group was significantly higher, compared to the healthy control group (P=0.012).On the other hand, left ventricular end-systolic thickness in diabetes+exercise+empagliflozin was significantly lower, compared to the diabetic control group (P=0.020).Moreover, left ventricular end-systolic volume in the diabetic control group was significantly higher, compared to healthy controls (P=0.006),and left ventricular end-systolic volume in the diabetes+exercise+empagliflozin group was significantly lower than that in the diabetic control group (P=0.017).No significant differences were observed in other structural and functional indices of the heart (P≥0.05). Discussion & Conclusion:The results of the present study showed that the combination of empagliflozin use and endurance training has a positive impact on the structure and function of the heart compared to the adoption of each (empagliflozin use and training) alone.