Figure 5
Experimental design. Male Wistar rats from the exercise (EX) group were submitted to an aerobic exercise protocol between the 21st and 60th postnatal days (P21–P60), while rats from the control (CTL) group were kept on a stopped treadmill for the same amount of time and circadian period. Subsequently, they were investigated at different life stages: 0 (P60), 30 (P90) and 60 (P120) days after the last exercise session. Their brains (n = 5–6 in each age and group) were removed and postfixed with paraformaldehyde to evaluate the absolute number of neuronal (in pink) and non-neuronal (in blue) cells using the isotropic fractionator method, and dendritic arborization was evaluated using the Golgi-Cox method (one brain hemisphere for each method). A different set of rats from the EX and CTL groups (n = 5–6 in each age and group) was used to investigate the expression of growth, proliferation and survival proteins (BDNF, Akt, mTOR, p70S6K, ERK and CREB) and stress hormones (ACTH and corticosterone) by simultaneous measurement of multiple proteins with the MAGPIX system.
