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Cardiac adaptation to endurance exercise in rats

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Abstract

Endurance exercise is widely assumed to improve cardiac function in humans. This project has determined cardiac function following endurance exercise for 6 (n = 30) or 12 (n = 25) weeks in male Wistar rats (8 weeks old). The exercise protocol was 30 min/day at 0.8 km/h for 5 days/week with an endurance test on the 6th day by running at 1.2 km/h until exhaustion. Exercise endurance increased by 318% after 6 weeks and 609% after 12 weeks. Heart weight/kg body weight increased by 10.2% after 6 weeks and 24.1% after 12 weeks. Echocardiography after 12 weeks showed increases in left ventricular internal diameter in diastole (6.39 ± 0.32 to 7.90 ± 0.17 mm), systolic volume (49 ± 7 to 83 ± 11 μl) and cardiac output (75 ± 3 to 107 ± 8 ml/min) but not left wall thickness in diastole (1.74 ± 0.07 to 1.80 ± 0.06 mm). Isolated Langendorff hearts from trained rats displayed decreased left ventricular myocardial stiffness (22 ± 1.1 to 19.1 ± 0.3) and reduced purine efflux during pacing-induced workload increases. 31P-NMR spectroscopy in isolated hearts from trained rats showed decreased PCr and PCr/ATP ratios with increased creatine, AMP and ADP concentrations. Thus, this endurance exercise protocol resulted in physiological hypertrophy while maintaining or improving cardiac function. (Mol Cell Biochem 251: 51–59, 2003)

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, School of Biomedical Sciences, The University of Queensland, 4072, Australia

    Andrew Fenning & Lindsay Brown

  2. Heart Foundation Research Centre, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Australia

    Glenn Harrison, Dan Dwyer & Roselyn Rose’Meyer

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  1. Andrew Fenning
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  2. Glenn Harrison
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  3. Dan Dwyer
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  4. Roselyn Rose’Meyer
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  5. Lindsay Brown
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Fenning, A., Harrison, G., Dwyer, D. et al. Cardiac adaptation to endurance exercise in rats. Mol Cell Biochem 251, 51–59 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1025465412329

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