| Objective: MicroRNA-126 plays a critical role in promoting cardiac angiogenesis. Aerobic exercise has also cardioprotectiveeffectsbyupregulatingangiogenicfactors.Thepresentstudyaimedtoevaluatetheimpactof aerobicexerciseoncardiacexpressionofmir-126andangiogenicsignalingpathways. Methods: Thirty-two male Wistar rats (180–240 g) were randomly divided into four diabetic control, healthy control, healthy exercise, and diabetic exercise groups. Diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal injection of Streptozotocin(STZ)50mg/kg(withcitratebuffer)andnicotinamide110mg/kg(withsaline).Aerobictraining groups were performing on a rodent treadmill with an intensity of 25 m/min, 5° gradients, and 30 min each sessionfor8weeks.Thecontrolgroupswereplacedonastationarytreadmillwithouttraining.Theheartofthe ratswastakenandtheexpressionlevelofcardiacmir-126wasevaluatedbyReal-timePCR.Theproteinlevelsof raf1,spred1,andVEGFweremeasuredusingELISA.Immunohistochemistrywasusedtomeasurecardiacmuscle capillarydensity. Results: TheresultsshowedthatdiabetesinducedbySTZdisruptedangiogenesissignalingthroughthereduction ofmir-126,raf1,andVEGF,whileanincreaseinspred1proteinlevel(p=0.01forall).However,8weeksof aerobic exercise (in healthy animals) significantly increased mir-126 expression, and raf1 and VEGF proteins (p = 0.05), while significantly decreased spred1 protein (p = 0.05). Also, 8 weeks of exercise training in diabeticratsmightimprovethecardiactissuebyincreasingmir-126andangiogenicsignalingpathways. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that aerobic exercise training may prevent negative effects of diabetesonhearttissuebyimprovingangiogenicpathway.Therefore,aerobicexercisemaybeagoodstrategy forcopingwithcardiovascularcelldamageofdiabetes |