Training in swimming reduces blood pressure and increases muscle glucose transport activity as well as GLUT4 contents in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats.

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Exercise improves muscle insulin sensitivity and GLUT4 contents. We investigated the beneficial effects of swimming training on insulin sensitivity and genetic hypertension using stroke-prone hypertensive rats (SHRSP). We studied the relationship between genetic hypertension and insulin resistance in SHRSP and Wistar Kyoto rats (WKY) as a control. The systolic blood pressure of SHRSP was significantly reduced by 4-week swimming training (208.4 +/- 6.8 mmHg vs. 187.2 +/- 4.1 mmHg, p < 0.05). The swimming training also resulted in an approximately 20% increase in the insulin-stimulated glucose transport activity (p < 0.05) of soleus muscle strips and an approximately 3-fold increase in the plasma membrane GLUT4 protein expression (p < 0.01) in SHRSP. However, basal and insulin-stimulated glucose transport activity and GLUT4 contents were not significantly different between WKY and SHRSP. There was no difference in insulin resistance in skeletal muscle of SHRSP as compared with WKY. Our results indicated swimming training exercise improved not only hypertension but also muscle insulin sensitivity and GLUT4 protein expression in SHRSP.