Combined effects of exercise and soy isoflavone diet on paraoxonase, nitric oxide and aortic apoptosis in ovariectomized rats.
Menopause is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). Exercise and soy isoflavone diets have been suggested to reduce the risk of CVD in postmenopausal women. We investigated the effects of exercise, or combined exercise and soy isoflavone diet, on plasma lipid profiles, paraoxonase (PON), nitric oxide (NO) and apoptosis in the aorta of ovariectomized (OVX) rats. Thirty-two female Sprague-Dawley rats were divided into four groups: OVX with general diet (OVX-GD), OVX with isoflavone diet (OVX-ISO), OVX-GD with exercise training (OVX-ET) and OVX-ISO with exercise training (OVX-ISO+ET). The experimental rats undertook treadmill training (30 min/day, 4 days/week) and/or were supplied a soy isoflavone diet (added to the experimental diet at 2.39 mg/g protein) for 12 weeks. Body weight and levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglyceride (TG), LDL-cholesterol (LDL-C) increased in the OVX rats and HDL-C decreased. These effects were reduced by exercise and/or soy isoflavone supplementation. PON and NO activities were higher in the OVX-ISO+ET group than in the OVX-GD group. In addition, this group had lower caspase-9 and -3 and higher Bcl-2 expression, and there was less aortic apoptotic cell death. These results suggest that a combination of exercise and a soy isoflavone diet has beneficial effects in terms of protecting against cardiovascular risk factors by controlling lipid profiles and the related enzyme, PON, as well as NO activity and apoptosis of the aorta in OVX rats.
Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, Collage of Medicine, Hanyang University, Seoul 133-791, Republic of Korea.
Jin
J
Lee
Hyung-Sook
HS
Cho
Dae-Young
DY
Kim
Joon-Yong
JY
Cho
Jae-Soon
JS
Chung
Han-Kyung
HK
Lee
Nak-Hun
NH
Seong
Won Kyu
WK
Kim
D000818:Animals; D001011:Aorta / Q000737:chemistry / Q000166:cytology* / Q000201:enzymology; D017209:Apoptosis; D043303:Aryldialkylphosphatase / Q000097:blood*; D053148:Caspase 3 / Q000032:analysis; D053453:Caspase 9 / Q000032:analysis; D004032:Diet; D005260:Female; D007529:Isoflavones / Q000008:administration & dosage*; D008055:Lipids / Q000097:blood; D009569:Nitric Oxide / Q000097:blood*; D010052:Ovariectomy; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2 / Q000032:analysis; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D014413:Tuna
D007529:Isoflavones; D008055:Lipids; D019253:Proto-Oncogene Proteins c-bcl-2; D009569:Nitric Oxide; D043303:Aryldialkylphosphatase; D053148:Caspase 3; D053453:Caspase 9