Moderate Exercise Training Improves Survival and Ventricular Remodeling in an Animal Model of Left Ventricular Volume Overload
- 1 September 2009
- journal article
- Published by Ovid Technologies (Wolters Kluwer Health) in Circulation: Heart Failure
- Vol. 2 (5), 437-445
- https://doi.org/10.1161/circheartfailure.108.845487
Abstract
Background— Exercise training has beneficial effects in patients with heart failure, although there is still no clear evidence that it may impact on their survival. There are no data regarding the effects of exercise in subjects with chronic left ventricular (LV) volume overload. Using a rat model of severe aortic valve regurgitation (AR), we studied the effects of long-term exercise training on survival, development of heart failure, and LV myocardial remodeling. Methods and Results— One hundred sixty male adult rats were divided in 3 groups: sham sedentary (n=40), AR sedentary (n=80), and AR trained (n=40). Training consisted in treadmill running for up to 30 minutes, 5 times per week for 9 months, at a maximal speed of 20 m/minute. All sham-operated animals survived the entire course of the protocol. After 9 months, 65% of trained animals were alive compared with 46% of sedentary ones ( P =0.05). Ejection fractions remained in the normal range (all above 60%) and LV masses between AR groups were similar. There was significantly less LV fibrosis in the trained group and lower LV filling pressures and improved echocardiographic diastolic parameters. Heart rate variability was also improved by exercise. Conclusion— Our data show that moderate endurance training is safe, does not increase the rate of developing heart failure, and most importantly, improves survival in this animal model of chronic LV volume overload. Exercise improved LV diastolic function, heart rate variability, and reduced myocardial fibrosis.Keywords
This publication has 33 references indexed in Scilit:
- Follistatin-Like 1 Is an Akt-Regulated Cardioprotective Factor That Is Secreted by the HeartCirculation, 2008
- Low-Intensity Exercise Training Delays Heart Failure and Improves Survival in Female Hypertensive Heart Failure RatsHypertension, 2008
- Exercise training delays cardiac dysfunction and prevents calcium handling abnormalities in sympathetic hyperactivity-induced heart failure miceJournal of Applied Physiology, 2008
- Running speed and maximal oxygen uptake in rats and mice: practical implications for exercise trainingEuropean Journal of Preventive Cardiology, 2007
- Myofibroblasts Induce Ectopic Activity in Cardiac TissueCirculation Research, 2007
- The Fuzzy Logic of Physiological Cardiac HypertrophyHypertension, 2007
- The Role of Heart Rate Variability in Prognosis for Different Modes of Death in Chronic Heart FailurePacing and Clinical Electrophysiology, 2006
- Low-intensity exercise training delays onset of decompensated heart failure in spontaneously hypertensive heart failure ratsAmerican Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulatory Physiology, 2005
- Interstitial fibrosis in the dilated non-ischaemic myocardiumHeart, 2003
- Analysis of Relative Gene Expression Data Using Real-Time Quantitative PCR and the 2−ΔΔCT MethodMethods, 2001