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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 297/4/H1361    most recent 01253.2008v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Kolwicz, S. C. Articles by Libonati, J. R. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Kolwicz, S. C. Articles by Libonati, J. R.

Left ventricular remodeling with exercise in hypertension

¹Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts; ²Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Ridgefield, Connecticut; and ³Community College of Philadelphia, Philadelphia; ⁴Eastern University, Wayne; ⁵Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia; and ⁶School of Nursing, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Submitted December 2, 2008 ; accepted in final form August 4, 2009

We investigated how exercise training superimposed on chronic hypertension impacted left ventricular remodeling. Cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, apoptosis, and proliferation in hearts from female spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) were examined. Four-month-old SHR animals were placed into a sedentary group (SHR-SED; n = 18) or a treadmill running group (SHR-TRD, 20 m/min, 1 h/day, 5 days/wk, 12 wk; n = 18). Age-matched, sedentary Wistar Kyoto (WKY) rats were controls (n = 18). Heart weight was greater in SHR-TRD vs. both WKY (P < 0.01) and SHR-SED (P < 0.05). Morphometric-derived left ventricular anterior, posterior, and septal wall thickness were increased in SHR-SED relative to WKY and augmented in SHR-TRD. Cardiomyocyte surface area, length, and width were increased in SHR-SED relative to WKY and further increased in SHR-TRD. Calcineurin abundance was increased in SHR-SED vs. WKY (P < 0.001) and attenuated in SHR-TRD relative to SHR-SED (P < 0.05). Protein abundance and mRNA of Akt was not different among groups. The rate of apoptosis was increased in SHR-SED relative to WKY and mitigated in SHR-TRD. The abundance of Ki-67⁺ cells across groups was not statistically different across groups. The abundance of cardiac progenitor cells (c-Kit⁺ cells) was increased in SHR-TRD relative to WKY. These data suggest that exercise training superimposed on hypertension augmented cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, despite attenuating calcineurin abundance. Exercise training also mitigated apoptosis in hypertension and showed a tendency to enhance the abundance of cardiac progenitor cells, resulting in a more favorable cardiomyocyte number in the exercise-trained hypertensive heart.

hypertrophy; myocytes; apoptosis; proliferation