title: Effects of swimming on dystrophic Syrian hamster heart.
abstract: Morphological and histopathological heart changes were determined for sixteen dystrophic Syrian hamsters (B10 14.6 strain) and sixteen normal hamsters. Eight animals were randomly assigned to each of the following groups: dystrophic swim (DYS-SWM), dystrophic sedentary (DSY-SED), normal swim (NOR-SWM), and normal sedentary (NOR-SED). The daily swimming  program consisted of an initial 30-minute swim which was gradually extended to 60 minutes  by the end of eight weeks. Weights up to 3% body weight were attached during swimming to increase the work load. Sedentary animals received no experimental treatment. Four animals in each group were sacrificed at 4 and 8 weeks after the initiation of treatments. In comparison with the two groups of sedentary animals, the NOR-SWM group had a greater heart weight/body weight ratio at both 4 and 8 weeks (P less than .05), while the DYS-SWM group had an increased ratio only at 8 weeks (P less than .05). Subjective histopathological evaluation of heart lesions showed that the DYS-SED group had many large areas of inflammatory reaction with infrequent diffuse areas of calcification. In contrast, the DYS-SWM group had fewer and smaller areas of inflammatory reaction with moderate amounts of calcification.
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D006224:Cricetinae; D006321:Heart / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008297:Male; D009137:Muscular Dystrophy, Animal / Q000503:physiopathology*; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D009336:Necrosis; D005082:Physical Exertion; D013550:Swimming