PURPOSE: Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) is a typical male adult disease in which the prostate is enlarged but not cancerous. Autophagy is a catabolic process of cellular constituents and a mechanism for cellular homeostasis of tissues. Currently, it is not established whether BPH is linked to autophagy or not and whether endurance exercise training, an autophagy activator, can ameliorate its disease symptoms. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate whether BPH is closely related with autophagy dysregulation and induced autophagy by exercise training can relieve BPH. METHODS: Forty-eight male wild-type SD rats (10-week old) were randomly divided into 4 groups: Sham, BPH-sedentary, BPH-exercise, and BPH-finasteride. For BPD induction, rats were castrated and testosterone (3 mg/kg/day) were administered daily for 2 months. During this period, rats performed five daily bouts of 25-minute treadmill running exercise per week or daily treated with finasteride dissolved in corn oil (10 mg/kg) by oral gavage for 8 weeks. Prostate weight, autophagy flux, serum and prostate levels of androgens and inflammatory factors were analyzed. The results were analyzed with one-way ANOVA. RESULTS: In BPH rats, the ratio of prostate weight/body weight was significantly elevated, but autophagy flux was significantly decreased (p<.05). Eight-week exercise training failed to reduce the ratio and to increase autophagy flux in the prostate of BPH rats. However, 8-week running training significantly decreased the levels of DHT and proinflammatory factors (IL-1β and IL-6) in the serum and the prostate of BPH rats (p<.05). CONCLUSIONS: This current study suggests that endurance exercise training may be beneficial for BPH not through the mechanisms involved in autophagy regulation but through alleviating hormonal and inflammatory factors.