Physical exercise influences astrocytes in the striatum of a Parkinson’s disease male mouse model

Physical exercise is considered an adjuvant treatment to Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients, possibly reducing inflammatory responses in the brain. Studies have stated that physical exercise protects dopaminergic neurons in PD models produced by neurotoxins. However, few studies focused on immunohistochemically reacted astrocytes and morphometric analyses of these cells in a PD mouse model submitted to physical exercise. We investigated the effects of treadmill training on striatal astrocytes of a PD mouse model combining immunohistochemistry and western-blotting for glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) with morphometric analyses. Male Swiss mice were divided into 4 groups: sedentary control (SEDCONT), exercise control (EXERCONT), sedentary Parkinson (SEDPD), and exercise Parkinson (EXERPD). Stereotaxic bilateral injections of 6-hydroxydopamine into the striatum were adopted for PD groups. Striatal astrocytes showed increased GFAP in EXERPD, and we observed a higher level of GFAP in EXERPD than SEDPD. The number of primary and secondary processes was similar in striatal astrocytes of control groups and EXERPD. The astrocyte primary processes of SEDPD were larger than those of EXERPD, EXERCONT and SEDCONT. Cell body diameters and areas showed no difference between groups. We concluded that physical exercise influences striatal astrocytes in exercised parkinsonian mice.