Abstract
Being born small for gestational age increases the risk of developing adult cardiovascular and metabolic diseases. This study aimed to examine if early‐life exercise could increase heart mass in the adult hearts from growth restricted rats. Bilateral uterine vessel ligation to induce uteroplacental insufficiency and fetal growth restriction in the offspring (Restricted) or sham surgery (Control) was performed on day 18 of gestation in WKY rats. A separate group of sham litters had litter size reduced to five pups at birth (Reduced litter), which restricted postnatal growth. Male offspring remained sedentary or underwent treadmill running from 5 to 9 weeks (early exercise) or 20 to 24 weeks of age (later exercise). Remarkably, in Control, Restricted, and Reduced litter groups, early exercise increased (P < 0.05) absolute and relative (to body mass) heart mass in adulthood. This was despite the animals being sedentary for ~4 months after exercise. Later exercise also increased adult absolute and relative heart mass (P < 0.05). Blood pressure was not significantly altered between groups or by early or later exercise. Phosphorylation of Akt Ser473 in adulthood was increased in the early exercise groups but not the later exercise groups. Microarray gene analysis and validation by real‐time PCR did not reveal any long‐term effects of early exercise on the expression of any individual genes. In summary, early exercise programs the heart for increased mass into adulthood, perhaps by an upregulation of protein synthesis based on greater phosphorylation of Akt Ser473.
Highlights
Babies born small for gestational age have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, hypertension, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes in adults (Barker et al.1989; Eriksson et al 2000; Storgaard et al 2006)
The effect of the early exercise was as potent as exercise in later life when the heart mass measurements were made immediately after the exercise training period
Since it is unlikely that the acute effects of the early exercise were sustained for 4 months, these results suggest that there were epigenetics effects of early-life exercise that benefit the adult heart
Summary
Babies born small for gestational age have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular disease, hypertension, insulin resistance, and type 2 diabetes in adults (Barker et al.1989; Eriksson et al 2000; Storgaard et al 2006). Fetal Programming, Exercise, and Cardiac Growth growth in prenatal life induced by a model of uteroplacental insufficiency adversely impacts on later cardiovascular and metabolic health including increased rates of hypertension (Vickers et al 2000; Wlodek et al 2007, 2008; Black et al 2012), glucose intolerance (Siebel et al 2008), and myocardial insulin resistance (Tsirka et al 2001). Our group has found that fetal growth restriction adversely impacts the heart during postnatal development, with lower cardiomyocyte number (Black et al 2012) and reduced cardiac expression of genes involved in mitochondrial metabolism, glucose transport, and oxidative stress (Wadley et al 2013). Whether endurance exercise training can increase the heart mass in rats exposed to uteroplacental insufficiency has to our knowledge yet to be examined
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