ABSTRACT
           Background and Objectives: Diabetes is one of the most common diseases and a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Studies have shown that regular exercise can affect apoptosis in cardiomyocytes. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of high-intensity interval training on the expression of Bcl-2 and Bax as important apoptosis factors in diabetic rats.
           Methods: After inducing diabetes in 20 male Wistar rats (weighing 250 ± 1.15 g), the rats were randomly divided into a control group and a training group. The training group performed high-intensity interval training five days a week for four weeks, and the control group did not perform any training. After the intervention, RNA was extracted and TCF mRNA was subjected to real time RT-PCR for measuring Bax and Bcl-2 expression in the heart tissue of diabetic rats. Data were analyzed by IBM SPSS Statistics V22 using independent t-test. P-values less than 0.05 were considered as statistically significant.
           Results: The expression of Bcl-2 increased significantly and the expression of Bax decreased significantly after the four-week training intervention.
           Conclusion: The high-intensity interval training can have beneficial effects on the expression of apoptotic genes in rats with type 2 diabetes.
           Keywords: Bax, Bcl-2, High intensity interval training, Heart, Type 2 diabetes.