Title: Exercise induced cardiac hypertrophy provides protection against pressure overload
Abstract: Introduction—Physiological cardiac hypertrophy induced by exercise is usually beneficial in marked contrast to pathological hypertrophy which is associated with disease. The aim of the study was to examine whether exercise-induced cardiac hypertrophy can provide protection against a subsequent pathological insult, despite cessation of exercise prior to the insult. Methods and results—Ten-week-old mice were divided into 2 groups: untrained and exercise trained. Mice assigned to exercise were subjected to swim training for 4 weeks. At completion of the protocol, exercise trained and untrained mice were subjected to either pressure-overload (ascending aortic-constriction to induce left ventricular hypertension and pathological hypertrophy) or the sham operation for 1 week. Exercise-induced cardiac hypertrophy had a favourable effect on cardiac function in the pressure-overload model, attenuated pathological growth and inhibited fibrosis. Furthermore, markers of pathological hypertrophy were significantly lower in aortic-banded hearts from exercise trained mice than untrained mice. Conclusions—Exercise-induced cardiac hypertrophy provided sustained protection in a setting of pressure overload via beneficial effects on cardiac growth, fibrosis and molecular markers of pathological hypertrophy. Examination of the "preconditioning" capacity of regular physical activity/physiological hypertrophy and the molecular mechanisms responsible for this phenomenon could provide new strategies to protect the heart form pathological insults.
Publication Year: 2007
Publication Date: 2007-06-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
Access and Citation
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot