| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立成功大學 === 生理學研究所 === 93 === Atherosclerosis is the leading cause of mortality in modern society. It has been reported that chronic exercise is an anti-atherosclerotic therapy. Previous studies have demonstrated that chronic exercise training reduces the apoptosis and the expression of pro-apoptotic proteins in skeletal muscle cells. It is also noticed that apoptotic events are involved in atherosclerotic progression. Whether exercise training reduces apoptosis of vascular cells in atherosclerosis remains unknown. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of chronic exercise training on the expression of the apoptosis-related protein in atherosclerotic aorta. Male ApoE-/- mice fed with 0.15% cholesterol diet were trained on a treadmill for 60 minutes twice per day (at speed of 15m/min), 5 days per week for 12 weeks. After exercise training, the citrate synthase activity was higher and the body weight was lower in the exercise group than in the control group. Results of oil red-O staining showed that exercise training reduced the fat deposits up to 18%. However, there were no significant differences in serum total cholesterol and low density lipoprotein cholesterol levels. By detecting the dihydroethidium fluorescence, the superoxide production between two groups was no difference. The expressions of the apoptotic regulating proteins were further determined by Western blotting. After exercise training, there were no differences in the expression of Bcl-2, Cu/Zn SOD and Hsp72 protein. In conclusion, chronic exercise training reduces the progression of atherosclerosis. This reduction may not relate to expression of apoptosis-related proteins.
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