Pulmonary functions of rats trained with mild exercise.
The purpose of the present study was to determine if lung function is modified by physical exercise in male and female rats. The animals were subjected to a running program for 5 weeks. At the termination of the program period, the running rats (R) had body weight smaller than the sedentary control rats (S). In male rats, the weights of lung, heart and adrenal glands, which were corrected with body weight, were larger in the R than in the S, and the absolute weight of adrenal glands also increased in the R. The rates of peak flow and maximum expiratory flow at 50% total lung capacity, which were corrected with either body weight, lung weight or total lung capacity, increased in the R. Because of no significant change in the flow resistance and compliance of the lungs, the increases in the rates of these expiratory flows might have been due to increased airway rigidity caused by some mechanisms relating to exercise stimuli. In female rats, on the other hand, the above changes in the R were little or less.
D000818:Animals; D001835:Body Weight; D005260:Female; D005540:Forced Expiratory Flow Rates; D008168:Lung / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D008448:Maximal Expiratory Flow Rate; D009929:Organ Size; D005082:Physical Exertion; D051381:Rats; D011919:Rats, Inbred Strains; D012727:Sex Characteristics