Introduction Today, with increasing life expectancy and longevity, the elderly population is increasing, and this is associated with an increased risk of heart and psychological diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). 1 Weight gain, metabolic disorders, organ failure, and decreased physical activity expose the elderly to heart disease and cognitive impairment, so myocardial infarction and AD are directly related. 1,2 The incidence of myocardial infarction in patients with AD is reported to be about 20% to 45% higher compared to the elderly. 2 Defects in heart cell regeneration, disorders of the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, disorders of neurotransmitters, decreased synthesis of vital cell proteins, and increased oxidative stress in these patients are important causes of cardiovascular disease. 3 Given that mitochondria play an important role in cell life, interventions and activating proteins of this organelle such as peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor (PPAR) gamma coactivator 1 α (PGC1α) cause mitochondrial doi 10.34172/ijbsm.2022.20 Changes in Some Observational Cardiac Parameters and Cardiac PGC1-α Expression Following Eight Weeks of Endurance Training and Saffron Consumption in Animal Models of Alzheimer’s Disease Maryam Azariyan 1 ID , Saeid Keshavarz 1* ID , Seyed Ali Hosseini 2 , Hamid Zahedi 1 1 Department of Sports Physiology, Najafabad Branch, Islamic Azad University, Najafabad, Iran 2 Department of Sports Physiology, Marvdasht Branch, Islamic Azad University, Marvdasht, Iran Int J Basic Sci Med. 2022;7(3):108-113 http://ijbsm.zbmu.ac.ir/ © 2022 The Author(s); Published by Zabol University of Medical Sciences. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Please cite this article as follows: Azariyan M, Keshavarz S, Hosseini SA, Zahedi H. Changes in some observational cardiac parameters and cardiac PGC1-α expression following eight weeks of endurance training and saffron consumption in animal models of alzheimer’s disease. Int J Basic Sci Med. 2022;7(3):108-113. doi:10.34172/ijbsm.2022.20. Original Article Abstract Introduction: The link between Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and heart disease has recently been reported. Previous studies have reported the beneficial role of endurance training (ET) and saffron (Sa) on the heart and nervous system health, but their interactive effect is not yet well known. Therefore, the aim of this study was to determine changes in some observational cardiac parameters and cardiac PGC1-α expression after 8 weeks of ET and Sa consumption in animal models of AD. Methods: In this experimental trial, 40 rats with AD (by intraperitoneal injection of 8 mg/kg neurotoxin trimethyltin) were divided into (1) AD, (2) sham (Sh), (3) Sa, (4) ET, and (5) ET + Sa groups. Additionally, to evaluate the effect of AD induction on the research variables, 8 healthy rats were included in the healthy control (HC) group. Groups 4 and 5 ran for 8 weeks, three 15-30 minute sessions per week at a speed of 20-15 m/min. Groups 3 and 5 received 25 mg/ kg aqueous extract of Sa peritoneally each day. To analyze the data, dependent samples t test, one-way analysis of variance and Tukey’s post hoc test, analysis of covariance with Bonferroni’s post hoc test in SPSS version 22.0 were used (P ≥ 0.05). Results: In the Sa and ET + Sa groups, heart weight, heart weight to body weight ratio, and cardiac PGC1-α expression were higher and the body weight of these groups was significantly lower compared with the AD group (P ≤ 0.05). Moreover, in the ET group, heart weight was higher than body weight and total body weight was lower compared to the AD group (P ≤ 0.05). Conclusion: It seems that Sa and ET + Sa interaction improve heart function and some parameters related to heart health by increasing PGC1-α expression, but the effect of training depends on its type and intensity, which should be further studied. Keywords: Endurance training, Crocus sativus, PGC1-α, Heart, Alzheimer’s disease ARTICLE INFO Article History: Received November 23, 2021 Accepted February 5, 2022 Published online September 29, 2022 *Correspondence to Saeid Keshavarz, Email: Keshavarz1357@gmail. com