Iction injury (CCI) of the sciatic nerve. METHODS: Male Sprague–Dawley rats were divided into 7 groups: control, sham operated (SO), SO with swimming or treadmill exercise (SOSE or SOTE), CCI, CCI with swimming or treadmill exercise (CCISE or CCITE). We recorded body weight, thermal withdrawal latency, and mechanical withdrawal threshold as well as Hsp72, TNF-α, and IL-1β expression in sciatic nerve. RESULTS: The body weights in the control and SO groups were heavier than those in the SOSE, SOTE, CCI, CCISE, and CCITE groups. CCI rats with swimming or treadmill exercise showed significant increase in thermal withdrawal latency and mechanical withdrawal threshold when compared with CCI rats without exercise on day 21 after CCI. Both CCISE and CCITE groups demonstrated greater Hsp72 expression and lower TNF-α or IL-1β level than did the CCI group in sciatic nerve on day 21 after CCI. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that progressive exercise training decreases peripheral neuropathic pain as well as TNF-α and IL-1β overproduction and increases HSP72 expression after CCI of the sciatic nerve....

Background and aims: Internet use has become an important part of daily living. However, for a minority it may become problematic. Moreover, problematic use of the Internet/smartphone (PUIS) has been associated with low physical activity. The present study investigated the temporal associations between three types of PUIS (i.e., problematic smartphone use [PSPU], problematic social media use [PSMU] and problematic gaming [PG]) and physical activity among Taiwanese university students.Methods: A six-month longitudinal survey study comprising three time points for assessments was conducted. From the original 974 participants, a total of 452 completed all three waves of an online survey comprising the International Physical Activity Questionnaire Short Form (IPAQ-SF) assessing physical activity level, Smartphone Application-Based Addiction Scale (SABAS) assessing PSPU, Bergen Social Media Addiction Scale (BSMAS) assessing PSMU, and Internet Gaming Disorder Short Form (IGDS9-SF) assessing PG.Results: The linear mixed effects model found positive temporal associations of PSMU and PG with physical activity level (PSMU: B = 85.88, SE = 26.24; P = 0.001; PG: B = 36.81, SE = 15.17; P = 0.02). PSPU was not associated with physical activity level (B = 40.54, SE = 22.99; P = 0.08). Additionally, the prevalence rates were 44.4% for at-risk/PSPU, 24.6% for at-risk/PSMU, and 12.3% for at-risk/PG.Discussion and Conclusions: PSMU and PG unexpectedly demonstrated correlations with higher physical activity level. The nature of these relationships warrants additional investigation into the underlying mechanisms in order to promote healthy lifestyles among university students.

Vaccination appears to be one of the effective strategies to control the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the challenge of vaccine hesitancy may lower the uptake rate and affect overall vaccine efficacy. Being a low-risk group in terms of serious consequences of infection, university students may possess low motivation to get vaccinated. Therefore, an expanded Protection Motivation Theory (PMT) incorporating perceived knowledge, adaptive response, and maladaptive response was proposed to investigate the COVID-19 vaccination intention among Taiwanese university students. University students (n = 924; 575 males; mean age = 25.29 years) completed an online survey during January to February 2021. The proposed expanded PMT model was examined using structural equation modeling (SEM). The results showed that perceived knowledge was significantly associated with coping appraisal (standardized coefficient (β) = 0.820; p < 0.001), and coping appraisal was significantly associated with adaptive response (β = 0.852; p < 0.001), maladaptive response (β = 0.300; p < 0.001) and intention (β = 0.533; p = 0.009). Moreover, maladaptive response (β = −0.173; p = 0.001) but not adaptive response (β = 0.148; p = 0.482) was significantly and negatively associated with intention. The present study’s results demonstrated a positive path between perceived knowledge, coping appraisal, and intention among university students. Therefore, improving knowledge among this population may increase the intention to uptake the vaccine.

Doxorubicin (DOX) is known as an effective drug in the fight against various cancers. However, one of the greatest impediments is DOX-induced cardiomyopathy, which may potentially lead to heart failure. Accumulating evidence has shed light on the pathological mechanism of DOX-induced cardiotoxicity, but treatments to mitigate the cardiac damage are still required. In an attempt to address this issue, we evaluated whether exercise provides cardioprotective effects on the DOX-induced cardiotoxicity. We showed that treadmill exercise (3 times/week; 1-week of exercise acclimatization and 4-weeks of endurance exercise) during the DOX treatment successfully prevented the cardiac dysfunction. The DOX-stimulated expression of IκBα, NF-κB, COX-2, and IL-8 were all downregulated by exercise as well as the fibrosis factors (TGF-β1, phosphorylated ERK, Sp1, and CTGF). Moreover, we showed that treadmill exercise diminished the expression of several cardiac remodeling-associated factors, such as FGF2, uPA, MMP2, and MMP9. These results were in line with the finding that exercise intervention reduced cardiac fibrosis and restored cardiac function, with higher values of ejection fraction and fractional shortening compared to the DOX-treated group. Two commonly used indicators of cardiac injury, lactate dehydrogenase, and creatine kinase-MB, were also decreased in the exercise group. Collectively, our results suggested that it may be beneficial to prescribe treadmill exercise as an adjunct therapy to limit cardiac damage caused by DOX.

Background: Cisplatin administration may induce muscle atrophy, thereby reducing the fitness level of patients with head and neck cancer (HNC). To date, only animal studies have been conducted to test the effectiveness of exercise interventions in diminishing side effects of cisplatin. Aim: To determine whether exercise training improves physical fitness and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in patients receiving chemotherapy for Head & Neck (H&N). Material and methods: This pilot-randomized controlled trial was conducted on 57 participants receiving chemotherapy for HNC. The participants were randomized into an exercise group and a control group. The exercise group received moderate-intensity combined aerobic, resistance and flexibility exercises three times a week for eight weeks during chemotherapy. The control group received no specific information regarding exercise. The outcome measures including body composition, muscle strength, balance, flexibility, cardiovascular fitness and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) were assessed at baseline and eight weeks following baseline. Results: The body composition (body fat percentage, p = 0.002; skeletal muscle percentage, p = 0.008), dynamic balance (p = 0.01), muscle strength (upper extremity, p = 0.037; lower extremity, p = 0.025) and HRQoL (p = 0.001) showed a significant difference between the exercise group and the control group eight weeks following baseline. Significant deteriorations were noted in flexibility, muscle strength, cardiovascular fitness and several domains of HRQoL scale in the control group at eight weeks following baseline. Conclusions: This study found that a combined aerobic, resistance and flexibility exercise program during chemotherapy may improve physical fitness (i.e., muscle strength, balance, flexibility and body composition) and HRQoL and alleviate the deterioration of cardiovascular fitness in patients with HNC. Further research studies with large sample sizes are warranted to investigate the long-term effects of exercise in this population.