1. Gene expression profile and aortic vessel distensibility in voluntarily exercised spontaneously hypertensive rats: potential role of heat shock proteins
- Author
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Andrew S. Naylor, Julia Grönros, Göran Bergström, Li-Ming Gan, Per-Arne Svensson, Ulrika Hägg, Ingibjörg H. Jonsdottir, and Maria E. Johansson
- Subjects
medicine.medical_specialty ,DNA, Complementary ,Physiology ,Down-Regulation ,Aorta, Thoracic ,Physical exercise ,Biology ,Polymerase Chain Reaction ,Physical Conditioning, Animal ,Rats, Inbred SHR ,medicine.artery ,Heat shock protein ,Internal medicine ,Gene expression ,Genetics ,medicine ,Animals ,Thoracic aorta ,HSP70 Heat-Shock Proteins ,Heat-Shock Proteins ,DNA Primers ,Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis ,Regulation of gene expression ,Aorta ,Models, Statistical ,Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction ,Gene Expression Profiling ,Chaperonin 60 ,Anatomy ,Immunohistochemistry ,Rats ,Perfusion ,Gene expression profiling ,Oxidative Stress ,Endocrinology ,Gene Expression Regulation ,RNA ,Female ,Algorithms - Abstract
Physical exercise is considered to be beneficial for cardiovascular health. Nevertheless, the underlying specific molecular mechanisms still remain unexplored. In this study, we aimed to investigate the effects of voluntary exercise on vascular mechanical properties and gene regulation patterns in spontaneously hypertensive rats. By using ultrasound biomicroscopy in an ex vivo perfusion chamber, we studied the distensibility of the thoracic aorta. Furthermore, exercise-induced gene regulation was studied in aortae, using microarray analysis and validated with real-time PCR. We found that distensibility was significantly improved in aortas from exercising compared with control rats ( P < 0.0001). Exercising rats demonstrated a striking pattern of coordinated downregulation of genes belonging to the heat shock protein family. In conclusion, voluntary exercise leads to improved vessel wall distensibility and reduced gene expression of heat shock protein 60 and 70, which may indicate decreased oxidative stress in the aortic vascular wall.
- Published
- 2005