Voluntary exercise as a preventive strategy against aircraft noise induced cardio/cerebrovascular damage

Abstract

BackgroundSeveral experimental studies found transportation noise to be associated with oxidative stress‐induced vascular damage, mediated by activation of the NADPH oxidase, uncoupling of endothelial nitric oxide synthase, and vascular infiltration with inflammatory cells. Furthermore, we could show that the AMP‐dependent‐Kinase (AMPK) is involved in the signaling processes leading to exercise‐mediated vascular protection. In the present study, we investigated the activation of AMPK during voluntary exercise as a preventive strategy.Methods and ResultsWild type (WT) mice were exposed to aircraft noise (maximum sound level of 85 dB(A), average sound pressure level of 72 dB(A) for 4 days after 6 weeks of voluntary exercise. We could show that 4 days noise exposure lead to a significant endothelial dysfunction accompanied by and significant increase in oxidative stress. The voluntary exercise training for 6 weeks resulted in a marked improvement of noise induced endothelium dysfunction and activation of ROS sources (NADPH oxidases). The beneficial effects of exercise training in the vasculature are accompanied by improvement of cerebral oxidative stress due to NADPH oxidases (NOX‐1, NOX‐2) and cerebral inflammatory responses (VCAM‐1, PAI‐1, COX‐2, MCP‐1). Transportation noise is disrupting gene expression patterns of circadian rhythm but we could show that exercise training is able to reestablish aortic circadian clock gene expression in noise exposed wild type mice.ConclusionWe here present novel data on exercise training as a protective strategy against negative effects of aircraft noise exposure by conferring AMPK activation. Our data suggest that exercise training might be an attractive mitigation strategy to protect the general population from noise‐induced cardiovascular damage. Especially patients at high cardiovascular risk could benefit from supervised exercise training to prevent additive cardio/cerebrovascular damage in response to transportation noise exposure.Support or Funding InformationGerman Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft) DFG