The Effect of Swimming Training Combined with Curcumin Consumption on Apoptosis Markers in Lung Tissue of BALB/c mice with Lung Cancer

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper I Open Access I Released under (CC BY-NC 4.0) license

Authors

1 Department of Exercise Physiology, Zand Higher Education Institute, Shiraz, Iran.

2 Department of Exercise Physiology, Shi.C, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran.

3 Department of Exercise Physiology, Shi.C, Islamic Azad University, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract

In cancer, the apoptosis process occurs very rarely, as a result, malignant cells do not die. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of 12-week swimming training combined with curcumin consumption on apoptosis markers in lung tissue of BALB/c mice with lung cancer.

In this experimental study, 36 male BALB/c mice, aged 8 to 10 weeks and weigh 18 to 25 g were randomly assigned to two groups: healthy control (n=6) and experimental (n=30, injection of 100 mg/kg body weight of benzo[a]pyrene). After induction of lung cancer, the experimental group of mice were assigned to cancer (n=6), sham (n=6), swimming training (n=6), curcumin (n=6), and training + curcumin (n=6) groups. Swimming training was performed three times a week, for 5 to 38 minutes, for 12 weeks. Curcumin was injected intraperitoneally at a dose of 100 mg/k of body weight daily for 12 weeks. 48 hours after the last training session, Bax and mir-21 gene expression was measured using Real-Time PCR. The analyses were conducted by using IBM SPSS-22.0 statistics. To analyze the data, a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) test with Tukey post hoc tests and two-way ANOVA with Bonferroni post hoc tests were used.

The expression of mir-21 gene in the cancer group was significantly increased compared to the healthy control group (P=0.001). Exercise (P=0.001), curcumin (P=0.001) and the combination of training and curcumin (P=0.001) significantly decreased mir-21 compared to the cancer group, and the combination of training and curcumin had the greatest effect in reducing this gene. The Bax gene was significantly increased only in the training + curcumin group compared to the other groups (P=0.001).

Swimming training combined with curcumin may be effective in improving apoptosis markers in samples with lung cancer. Further studies are needed to apply the results to human populations.

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Journal of Applied Health Studies in Sport Physiology

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 19 April 2026

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History

  • Receive Date: 25 December 2025
  • Revise Date: 14 February 2026
  • Accept Date: 19 April 2026

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