title: Endurance exercise training reduces cardiac sodium/calcium exchanger expression in animals susceptible to ventricular fibrillation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Increased sodium/calcium exchanger activity (NCX1, an important regulator of cardiomyocyte cystolic calcium) may provoke arrhythmias. Exercise training can decrease NCX1 expression in animals with heart failure improving cytosolic calcium regulation, and could thereby reduce the risk for ventricular fibrillation (VF).
  
  
  METHODS
  To test this hypothesis, a 2-min coronary occlusion was made during the last minute of exercise in dogs with healed myocardial infarctions; 23 had VF (S, susceptible) and 13 did not (R, resistant). The animals were randomly assigned to either 10-week exercise training (progressively increasing treadmill running; S n = 9; R n = 8) or 10-week sedentary (S n = 14; R n = 5) groups. At the end of the 10-week period, the exercise + ischemia test provoked VF in sedentary but not trained susceptible dogs. On a subsequent day, cardiac tissue was harvested and NCX1 protein expression was determined by Western blot.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the sedentary group, NCX1 expression was significantly (ANOVA, P < 0.05) higher in susceptible compared to resistant dogs. In contrast, NCX1 levels were similar in the exercise trained resistant and susceptible animals.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These data suggest that exercise training can restore a more normal NCX1 level in dogs susceptible to VF, improving cystolic calcium regulation and could thereby reduce the risk for sudden death following myocardial infarction.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physiology and Cell Biology, The Ohio State University Columbus, OH, USA.
authors.forename: Monica
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kukielka
authors.forename: Bethany J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Holycross
authors.forename: George E
authors.initials: GE
authors.lastname: Billman