Effect of different intensities aerobic exercise to cardiac angiogenesis regulation on Wistar rats

The adaptation response of myocardium angiogenesis stimulated by specific exercise intensities remains unclear. The aims of this study is to explore the effect of different intensities aerobic exercise to cardiac angiogenesis regulation via HIF-1 alpha, PGC-1 alpha, VEGF, and CD34(+) in Wistar rats. Wistar rats were divided into control and exercise groups. Exercise groups were trained on a treadmill for 12 weeks, 30 min/day for 5 days with low, moderate, and high-intensity groups. The rats were sacrificed, and the myocardium was collected and preserved at -80 degrees C until used. Cardiac protein samples were extracted and run for Western blotting using the specific antibodies: hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1 alpha, Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-alpha (PGC-1 alpha), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF), and Cluster of differentiation 34 (CD34(+)). Results showed that protein expression of HIF-1 alpha, PGC-1 alpha, VEGF, and CD34(+) was increased significantly by different intensities in the exercise group compared to the control. A correlation statistics test showed that there was a strong correlation effect of HIF-1 alpha on VEGF protein expression in low (p=0.047) and high intensity exercise groups (p=0.009), but no effect was found in the moderate groups. In addition, there was a significant strong effect of PGC-1 alpha on VEGF protein expression in the moderate groups (p=0.037), but no effect was found in other groups. In conclusion, different exercise intensities induce a different modulation pattern of proteins which might be responsible for cardiac adaptation, especially angiogenesis.