Abstract
Decompression sickness (DCS) after diving is a major risk of injury to divers, aviators and space travelers. DCS is associated with gas bubbles formed during decompression, but the processes linking bubbles to DCS are unknown. Exercise before diving reduces DCS risk. The effect of exercise on DCS could be caused by reduced bubble formation and/or to the induction of genetic pathways that affect biological responses to bubbles.Study objectiveTo examine the effects of eccentric exercise on vascular gene expression and gas bubble production after diving.MethodsThree groups of female Sprague Dawley rats were used; two diving groups with or without exercise and one control group, n=9 in each group. The exercise group did one bout of 100 min downhill treadmill running before diving, and saturation diving was simulated in an air‐filled pressure chamber at 709 kPa for 50 min. Diving‐induced stress was measured by ultrasonic detection of bubbles in the pulmonary artery and by full genome mRNA analysis of the aorta. All procedures were approved by the Animal Research Ethics Authority.ResultsDiving alone activated expression of 18 genes, whereas eccentric exercise reduced expression of 12 of these and upregulated an additional 25 genes. Specifically, elevated cytokine‐cytokine receptor expression and decreased expression of anti‐fibrinolytic Serpine1 was found in the exercise group. There were no differences in bubble formation between the groups.ConclusionsWhereas diving induces cytokine and oxygen‐responsive gene expression, the protective effect of eccentric exercise before diving may be attributed to altered expression of genes involved in inflammatory responses.This study was supported by Samarbeidsorganet HMN/NTNU, Kontaktutvalget St. Olavs Hospital/NTNU, and FUGE Midt‐ Norge, Norway.
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