Published Online
on June 4, 2007

A more recent version of this article appeared on June 19, 2007

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Submitted on November 22, 2006
Accepted on March 30, 2007

Exercise Training Normalizes Sympathetic Outflow by Central Antioxidant Mechanisms in Rabbits With Pacing-Induced Chronic Heart Failure

Lie Gao MD, PhD^*, Wei Wang MD, PhD, Dongmei Liu MD, PhD, and Irving H. Zucker PhD

From the Department of Cellular and Integrative Physiology, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Neb.

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: lgao{at}unmc.edu.

Background--In a recent study, we demonstrated that an increase in oxidative stress in the rostral ventrolateral medulla plays a critical role in the sympathoexcitation observed in chronic heart failure (CHF). Growing evidence indicates that exercise training evokes an antioxidative effect in CHF. In the present study, we therefore hypothesized that long-term exercise exerts its beneficial effect on autonomic activity in CHF via central antioxidative mechanisms.

Methods and Results--Experiments were performed on New Zealand White rabbits. All rabbits were instrumented to measure mean arterial pressure, heart rate, and renal sympathetic nerve activity and to test baroreflex sensitivity. Exercise training significantly decreased baseline renal sympathetic nerve activity (65.8±5.2% to 41.3±3.9% of Max [where "Max" is the maximum renal sympathetic nerve activity induced by a 50-mL puff of smoke directed to the external nares of the rabbit], P<0.05) and increased the maximal gain of the baroreflex curves for heart rate (2.2±0.2 to 4.6±0.7 bpm per mm Hg, P<0.01) and renal sympathetic nerve activity (1.9±0.2% to 4.5±0.4% of Max per mm Hg, P<0.01) in CHF rabbits. Exercise training increased expression of CuZn superoxide dismutase (0.3±0.1 to 1.5±0.3 [ratio of CuZn superoxide dismutase to tubulin], P<0.01) and decreased NAD(P)H oxidase subunit gp91^phox protein expression (1.9±0.2 to 1.2±0.1 [ratio of gp91^phox to tubulin], P<0.05) in the rostral ventrolateral medulla of CHF rabbits. Central overexpression of CuZn superoxide dismutase dose-dependently decreased baseline renal sympathetic nerve activity (control, 68.5±7.1% of Max; 10¹⁰ particles of adenovirus, 53.2±4.4% of Max; and 10¹¹ particles of adenovirus, 33.7±3.5% of Max; P<0.05) in CHF rabbits.

Conclusions--These results suggest that an upregulation in central antioxidative mechanisms and suppressed central prooxidant mechanisms may contribute to the exercise training-induced beneficial effects on autonomic activity in CHF.

Key words: exercise • heart failure • nervous system, sympathetic • free radicals • oxidative stress

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