Exercise Training Increases Capillary Density in a Mouse Model of Heart Failure

Exercise is known to improve outcomes in heart failure patients, but there is a limit as to the data that can be obtained on mechanisms of action from human patients. Here researchers use a mouse model of heart failure to show that exercise doesn't impact the harmful presence of fibrosis in heart tissue, but does increase capillary density. The density of capillaries in tissues throughout the body declines with age, and this progressive loss is probably quite important in a number of aspects of aging, particularly in tissues that have high energy demands, such as the heart. That fibrosis isn't affected suggests that exercise doesn't do much to reduce the burden of cellular senescence, however, given that senescent cells are strongly implicated in age-related fibrosis. Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is the most common type of heart failure in older adults. Although no pharmacological therapy has yet improved survival in HFpEF, exercise training has emerged as the most effective intervention to improving functional outcomes in this age-related disease. The molecular mechanisms by which exercise training induces its beneficial effects in HFpEF, however, remain largely unknown. Given the strong association between aging and HFpEF, we hypothesized that exercise training might reverse cardiac aging phenotypes that contribute to HFpEF pathophysiology and additionally provide a platform for novel mechanistic and therapeutic discovery. Here, we ...
Source: Fight Aging! - Category: Research Authors: Tags: Daily News Source Type: blogs