title: The effect of endurance exercise on bone dimensions, collagen, and calcium in the aged male rat.
abstract: Sixteen weeks of a relatively mild running program, started at 22 months of age, lowered the body weights of 26-month-old male rats to the level of 9-month-old rats and increased the weights and the collagen densities of hind limb bones to levels greater than those of 9-, 22-, and 26-month-old sedentary rats. The densities (g/cm3) and the calcium densities (mg/cm3) of the hind limb bones decreased with age and were restored to the 9-month level by training the elderly rats to run. These data suggest that exercise is capable of inducing a compensation for, or a reversal of, age-associated bone loss (osteoporosis) and restoring the bone mineral content in aged rats to the level of those of mature young adult animals.
mesh_terms: D000375:Aging; D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D002118:Calcium / Q000378:metabolism*; D005269:Femur / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000378:metabolism; D008297:Male; D009929:Organ Size; D010807:Physical Endurance; D005082:Physical Exertion; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D013977:Tibia / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D002118:Calcium