Regular Voluntary Running Inhibits Androgen-Independent Prostate Cancer Growth in Mice
in Journal of Physical Activity and HealthIntroduction: Benefits of regular physical exercise were demonstrated as preventive and coadjuvant nonpharmacological anticancer therapy. However, the role of exercise in modulating prostate cancer behavior has yet to be established. Methods: Prostate tumors were induced in C57BL/6 male mice (n = 28) by subcutaneous inoculation of a suspension of murine androgen-independent RM1 cells (1.5 × 105 cells/500 μL phosphate-buffered saline) in the dorsal region. Mice were randomly allocated into 2 study groups: sedentary tumor-induced (n = 14) and exercised tumor-induced (n = 14). Exercise consisted of voluntary running in wheeled cages. Mice (n = 7 per group) were sacrificed either 14 or 28 days after cell inoculation to evaluate tumor weight and percentage of area occupied by immunohistochemistry stained cells for Ki-67 and TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end labeling, used as surrogate markers of cell proliferation and apoptosis, respectively. Results: Compared with sedentary tumor-induced mice, the tumors developed by exercised tumor-induced mice were significantly smaller at 14 days (0.17 [0.12] g vs 0.48 [0.24] g, P < .05) and at 28 days (0.92 [0.73] g vs 2.09 [1.31] g, P < .05), with smaller Ki-67 and greater TdT-mediated dUTP-biotin nick end-labeling stained areas (P < .05). Conclusion: These results suggest that regular voluntary running inhibits prostate cancer cell growth by reducing cell proliferation and enhancing apoptosis.
Esteves and Silva contributed equally to this work. Esteves, Silva, and Duarte are with the Laboratory of Biochemistry and Experimental Morphology, CIAFEL, Faculty of Sport, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. Esteves is also with the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Hospital-Escola, Fernando Pessoa University, Porto, Portugal. Pereira, Morais, Costa, and Monteiro are with the Unit for Multidisciplinary Research in Biomedicine, Instituto de Ciências Biomédicas Abel Salazar, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. Moreira is with the Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde (I3S), University of Porto, Porto, Portugal. Duarte is also with the Instituto Universitário de Ciências da Saúde, Gandra, Portugal.
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