Abstract
A decline in cardiovascular modulation is a feature of the normal aging process and associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) such as hypertension and stroke. Exercise training is known to promote cardiovascular adaptation in young animals and positive effects on motor and cognitive capabilities, as well as on brain plasticity for all ages in mice. Here, we examine the question of whether aerobic exercise interventions may impact the GABAergic neurons of the paraventricular nucleus (PVN) in aged rats which have been observed to have a decline in cardiovascular integration function. In the present study, young (2 months) and old (24 months) male Wistar rats were divided into young control (YC), old sedentary, old low frequency exercise (20 m/min, 60 min/day, 3 days/week, 12 weeks) and old high frequency exercise (20 m/min, 60 min/day, 5 days/week, 12 weeks). Exercise training indexes were obtained, including resting heart rate (HR), blood pressure (BP), plasma norepinephrine (NE), and heart weight (HW)-to-body weight (BW) ratios. The brain was removed and processed according to the immunofluorescence staining and western blot used to analyze the GABAergic terminal density, the proteins of GAD67, GABAA receptor and gephyrin in the PVN. There were significant changes in aged rats compared with those in the YC. Twelve weeks aerobic exercise training has volume-dependent ameliorated effects on cardiovascular parameters, autonomic nervous activities and GABAergic system functions. These data suggest that the density of GABAergic declines in the PVN is associated with imbalance in autonomic nervous activities in normal aging. Additionally, aerobic exercise can rescue aging-related an overactivity of the sympathetic nervous system and induces modifications the resting BP and HR to lower values via improving the GABAergic system in the PVN.
Highlights
Aging is associated with many chronic disorders, which is the dominant risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and accounts for more deaths than any other disease
The functional ability of large conduit vessels to store energy during systole allow a systolic blood pressure (BP) which is lower while the energy is stored in the tension of the vessels, and the ability to recoil to release that energy during diastole keeps the diastolic pressure high enough to push the blood through the capillaries throughout the cardiac cycle
In order to investigate the effects of aerobic exercise on aging related changes in physical characteristics, we examined the body weight (BW), heart weight (HW), heart rate (HR) and BP of all rats
Summary
Aging is associated with many chronic disorders, which is the dominant risk factor for cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), and accounts for more deaths than any other disease. Among these factors age is an independent risk factor and is implicated in the development of hypertension, grouped under CVDs. Structure remolding and dysfunctional changes of the cardiovascular system. Levels of sympathetic nerve activity (SNA) that are too high result in increased peripheral vascular resistance, remodeling of cardiovascular tissue and, hypertension if these persist over a long period of time. An important question in this field is whether aging-induced neural changes in the cardiovascular regulation brain area is associated with aging-related dysfunctional changes in the autonomic nervous system
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