Introduction: Nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs) are integral membrane proteins and prototypic members of the ligand-gated ion-channel superfamily, which they mediate synaptic transmission at the neuromuscular junction. This study investigated the effect of resistance training on the content of nAChR in slow and fast muscles of male Wistar rats.
Methods: In this experimental study, 14 male Wistar rats (mean weight =220 ±15g) were randomly divided into two groups (control and resistance training) and they followed the training protocol for 12 weeks. Animals of the resistance group were housed in a metal cage with a wire-mesh tower, with two water bottles set at the top. Forty-eight hours after the last session of protocol, animals were anaesthetized. The soleus (as slow muscle) and anterior tibialis (AT, as fast muscle) were removed under sterile condition. For nAChR assay, ELISA kit was used. Independent- sample T test was used to analyze the data.
Results: Data analysis showed that there was a significant difference between control and resistance training groups in the nAChR of slow (P=0.001) and fast (P=0.001) muscles. Therefore, resistance training increases nAChR content in both slow and fast muscles. The results showed that there was not a significant difference among fast and slow twitch muscle’s nAChRs in resistance training group (P>0.05).
Conclusion: The content of nAChR increased with resistance training protocol in the fast and slow muscles. It seems that resistance training can lead to the content of nAChR increase by accelerating synaptic transcription factors (such as CGRP) that contribute to synthesis and clustering of nAChR.