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Exercise-mitigated sex-based differences in aging: from genetic alterations to heart performance.
- Source :
- American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative & Comparative Physiology; Feb2021, Vol. 320 Issue 2, pH854-H866, 13p
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- The prevalence of cardiovascular diseases dramatically increases with age; therefore, striving to maintain a physiological heart function is particularly important. Our aim was to study the voluntary exercise-evoked cardioprotective effects in aged male and female rats, from genetic alterations to changes in heart performance. We divided 20-month-old female and male Wistar rats to control and running groups. After the 12-wk-long experimental period, echocardiographic measurements were performed. Afterwards, hearts were either removed for biochemical measurements or mounted into a Langendorff-perfusion system to detect infarct size. The following genes and their proteins were analyzed from heart: catechol-O-methyltransferase (Comt), endothelin-1 (Esm1), Purkinje cell protein-4 (Pcp4), and osteoglycin (Ogn). Recreational exercise caused functional improvements; however, changes were more prominent in males. Cardiac expression of Comt and Ogn was reduced as a result of exercise in aged males, whereas Pcp4 and Esm1 showed a marked overexpression, along with a markedly improved diastolic function. The key result of this study is that exercise enhanced the expression of the Pcp4 gene and protein, a recently described regulator of calcium balance in cardiomyocytes, and suppressed Comt and Ogn gene expression, which has been associated with impaired cardiac function. In addition, as a result of exercise, a significant improvement was observed in the size of infarct elicited by left anterior descending coronary artery occlusion. Our results clearly show that age and sex-dependent changes were both apparent in key proteins linked to cardiovascular physiology. Exercise-moderated fundamental genetic alterations may have contributed to the functional adaptation of the heart. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 03636119
- Volume :
- 320
- Issue :
- 2
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- American Journal of Physiology: Regulatory, Integrative & Comparative Physiology
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 148816994
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1152/ajpheart.00643.2020