title: Effect of intermittent hypoxia and exercise on blood rheology and oxygen transport in trained rats.
abstract: Intermittent hypobaric hypoxia (IHH) exposure, accompanied or not with active recovery, can help to skeletal muscle repair. However, the erythropoietic response elicited can disturb blood rheology and thus alter the oxygen delivery to tissues. Male Sprague-Dawley rats were studied in two basal states: untrained and trained and compared with early (1-3 days) and late (7-14 days) stages of damage recovery in three groups of trained rats that had suffered skeletal muscle injury: Control, passive recovery rats; HYP, rats exposed to IHH after muscle damage; and EHYP, trained rats that performed light aerobic exercise sessions in addition to IHH. Hematocrit, RBC count and hemoglobin were only elevated in the late stage of recovery in HYP (13%; 14% and 8%) and EHYP (18%; 13% and 15%) groups. Blood viscosity increased about double for EHYP rats. It is concluded that intermittent exposure to hypobaric hypoxia in combination with light aerobic exercise in normoxia has an erythropoietic effect, but also provides advantageous hemorheological conditions for the perfusion of damaged muscle.
authors.affiliation: Departament de Fisiologia i Immunologia, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Edifici Ramon Margalef, Av. Diagonal, 643, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Cristian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Núñez-Espinosa
authors.affiliation: Departament de Fisiologia i Immunologia, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Edifici Ramon Margalef, Av. Diagonal, 643, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Douziech
authors.affiliation: Departament de Fisiologia i Immunologia, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Edifici Ramon Margalef, Av. Diagonal, 643, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Juan Gabriel
authors.initials: JG
authors.lastname: Ríos-Kristjánsson
authors.affiliation: Departament de Fisiologia i Immunologia, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Edifici Ramon Margalef, Av. Diagonal, 643, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rizo
authors.affiliation: Departament de Fisiologia i Immunologia, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Edifici Ramon Margalef, Av. Diagonal, 643, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Joan Ramon
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Torrella
authors.affiliation: Departament de Fisiologia i Immunologia, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Edifici Ramon Margalef, Av. Diagonal, 643, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pagès
authors.affiliation: Departament de Fisiologia i Immunologia, Facultat de Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona, Edifici Ramon Margalef, Av. Diagonal, 643, E-08028 Barcelona, Spain. Electronic address: gviscor@ub.edu.
authors.forename: Ginés
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Viscor
mesh_terms: D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000818:Animals; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity / Q000502:physiology*; D001809:Blood Viscosity / Q000502:physiology*; D004906:Erythrocyte Count; D005080:Exercise Test; D006454:Hemoglobins / Q000032:analysis; D000860:Hypoxia / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000534:rehabilitation; D008297:Male; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D012212:Rheology; D013997:Time Factors
chemical_list: D006454:Hemoglobins
keywords: Blood viscoelasticity; Exercise training; Hemorheology; Intermittent hypobaric hypoxia; Oxygen transport