Fig.
1. The experimental timeline.
Treadmill exercise
The treadmill exercise was performed according to previous
literature[22]. During the adaptation period, the
exercised rats were allocated in the test room for 30 min acclimation,
followed by treadmill running for 30 min on 3 consecutive days (first
day at 8 m/min; second day at 10/min; third day at 12m/min). Then, those
rats were subjected to a treadmill exercise protocol at the speed of 12
m/min for 60 min. In total, rats were trained for 1 h per day, 5 days
per week, for a total of 4 weeks.
VD model
VD model was induced by bilateral common carotid arteries operation
according to previous reported[23]. First, under
deep anesthesia with 10% chloral hydrate (350 mg/kg), bilateral common
carotid arteries of rats in VD and Exe-VD groups were identified and
isolated from vagus through a ventral midline cervical incision, then
tightly ligated using 10-0 suture thread on both ends. The rats in the
control group were subjected to the same surgical procedure except that
the common carotid arteries were exposed but not ligated. The
“Zea-Longa 5-point scale” was performed according to previously
described methods to verify whether the animal model had been
successfully established. A score between 1 and 4 indicates successful
modeling of VD. Rats not showing neurological defect were excluded from
the study.
Table 1 “Zea-Longa” 5-point scale