Abstract:Objective To investigate the effect of aquatic exercise combined with Chinese medicine internal treatment on apoptosis of aortic cells in diabetic atherosclerosis rats and the possible mechanism. Methods A total of 125 male SD rats were randomly divided into blank group, model group, aquatic exercise (AE) group, Chinese medicine internal treatment (CMIT) group, aquatic exercise with Chinese medicine internal treatment(AE+CMIT,) group. Except the blank group, the diabetic atherosclerosis model was established in the other groups with the injection of streptozotocin and high-fat feeding. The successfully modeled rats were given 2 ml normal saline or 2 ml Chinese medicine solution respectively. Besides, AE group and AE+CMIT group performed aquatic exercise six times a week. After eight weeks of treatment, blood glucose, blood lipids, inflammatory factors, glucose-regulated protein 78 (GRP78) and CCAAT/enhance-binding protein homologous protein(CHOP) mRNA expression levels and the apoptosis index of arterial cells were measured. SPSS statistics 19.0 was used for data analysis. One-way ANOVA was used for comparison between multiple groups, while LSD-t test was used for comparison between two groups. Results Compared with blank group,triglycerides (TG), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C),glycosylated hemoglobin (GHb), interleukin 6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), C-reactive protein (CRP), GRP78 mRNA, CHOP mRNA, and cell apoptotic index(CAI) in other groups increased, and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) decreased, the differences being statistically significant (P<0.01). Compared with the model group,TG,LDL-C,GHb, IL-6, TNF-α, CRP, GRP78 mRNA, CHOP mRNA, CAI in treatment groups decreased,and HDL-C increased, the differences being statistically significant (P<0.05). Compared with the AE group, TG, LDL-C, GHb, IL-6, TNF-α, CRP, GRP78 mRNA, CHOP mRNA, and CAI in the AE+CMIT group decreased,and HDL-C increased, the differences being statistically significant (P<0.05). Conclusion Both aquatic exercise and Chinese medicine internal treatment can regulate metabolism disorder of blood glucose and blood lipid and inflammatory response, inhibit endoplasmic reticulum stress of arterial cells, reduce the level of apoptosis of arterial cells, and they provide a synergistic effect to each other.