Experimental Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis (EAE) is an appropriate model for investigating the inflammation indices in Multiple Sclerosis (MS). The aim of this study was to evaluate the pretreatment effect of 6-week forced swimming exercise alongside vitamin D supplementation on levels of cytokines and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in rats with EAE. Swimming exercise was performed for 5 d/week over a period of 6 weeks. The swimming training program initiated with 30 minutes in the first week and then by adding 5 min daily it reached 60 min in the second week. The overload was exerted by adjusting the workload through increasing the water flow speed. EAE was induced at the end of the sixth week of training. The vitamin D was injected 2 weeks (every two days) before inducing the EAE model. The animals were sacrificed 14 days after EAE induction. Disease progress was evaluated daily. Statistical analysis was done using a one-way analysis of variance. The results of ELISA test indicated that swimming exercise alongside vitamin D in Lewis female rats with EAE led to lower concentrations of TNF-α (p<0.0001). However, there was not observed a significant change in IL-10 (p<0.05) and BDNF (p<0.05). The results of current study suggest that this protocol would possibly help neuroprotection through confronting the EAE-stimulated inflammation. However, there are more studies required for discovering the mechanisms through which forced swimming exercise alongside vitamin D exert their neuroprotective roles.
