Effects Of Genistein And Exercise On Ovariectomized And Intact Rats

Abstract

Genistein and exercise are independently purported to abate cardiovascular disease, thus, in this study we aimed to examine the effects of a 6 week treatment with genistein (300 mg/kg day, G) or placebo control (0G) with (EX) or without exercise (SED) in ovariectomized (OVX) and intact (INT) Sprague‐Dawley rats randomly divided into the following groups; OVX‐EX, OVX‐G/EX, OVX‐SED, OVX‐G/SED, INT‐EX, INT‐G/EX, INT‐SED, INT‐G/SED. Final rat weight, heart weight, and tibia length were all significantly decreased in OVX‐G/EX (n=7) compared to OVX‐EX (n=6). Heart weight and tibia length were significantly increased in OVX‐EX (n=6) compared to OVX‐SED (n=6). Femur weight was significantly increased in INT‐EX (n=6) and INT‐G/EX (n=9) compared to INT‐G/SED (n=5). Tibia length was significantly increased in INT‐EX (n=6) compared to INT‐G/SED (n=5). There were no changes in total liver weight, left liver lobe weight, total liver weight/body weight ratio, femur length, tibia weight, fat pad weight, uterine weight between groups. At the end of the study; systolic BP and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were increased in OVX‐G/EX, MAP was decreased in INT‐G/SED (n=5), pulse pressure was increased in OVX‐EX (n=6) and decreased in INT‐EX (n=6) and cardiac work was decreased in INT‐EX (n=6). Interestingly, there was an EX‐induced increase in aorta luminal diameter of INT‐EX (762.5±9.6 μm, n=4) compared to INT‐SED (723.1±7.5 μm, n=5), without change in aortic wall thickness. Our results show that a 6 week treatment of genistein and/or EX can contribute towards changes in both physical characteristic and blood pressures, and that INT and OVX rats do not respond similarly. Supported by NIH (1R15DK071625‐01A2), MWU intramural & CHS funds.