Background: One of the problems due to aging is apoptosis development in various tissues of body. There is some evidence that some drugs induce apoptosis development via oxidative stress. However, physical activity and herbal drugs through two different mechanisms can cause to inhibit the apoptosis.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of concurrent regular aerobic training and garlic extract on Bax and Bcl-2 levels and Bax to Bcl-2 ratio in cardiac tissue of aged rats with chronic kidney disease.

Methods: Forty two aged male rats were selected and randomly divided into control group, Doxorubicin group, Doxorubicin and saline group, Doxorubicin and aerobic training group, Doxorubicin and garlic group, Doxorubicin, garlic and aerobic training group. The chronic kidney disease induced by the subcutaneous injection of doxorubicin (8.5 mg/kg of body weight) .The protocol training included 3 sessions per week, 30 minutes per session for 8 weeks. The garlic extract were given by gavage (2.5 g/kg of body weight). Cardiac levels of Bax and Bcl-2 were measured by ELISA.

Results: The results showed that eight weeks swimming training and garlic extract and combination of them caused to significant increase in Bcl-2 levels and significant decrease in Bax levels and Bcl-2 to Bax ratio of aged cardiac tissue rats with chronic kidney disease (P<0.05).

Conclusion: Based on the results, although physical training and garlic extract individually imposed protective effects on the cardiac tissue but intervention effect of them had no reinforcement effect on the cardiac protection.