title: Long-term moderate exercise accelerates the recovery of stress-evoked cardiovascular responses.
abstract: Psychological stress is an important global health problem. It is well documented that stress increases the incidences of various cardiovascular disorders. Regular exercise is known to reduce resting blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR). This study was designed to clarify the effects of long-term exercise on stress-evoked cardiovascular responses and to emphasize post-stress recovery effects. Male Wistar rats underwent 8 weeks of moderate treadmill training, with cardiovascular responses, autonomic nervous system activities and local Fos reactivity changes in the cardiovascular regulation center were monitored before, during and after immobilization stress. A spectral analysis of cardiovascular parameters was used to examine autonomic nervous activities. We found that long-term exercise (i) lowered resting BP, HR and sympathetic activity, but increased resting parasympathetic activity and baroreflex sensitivity (BRS); (ii) accelerated post-stress recovery of stress-evoked cardiovascular and sympathetic responses along with increased BRS and (iii) accelerated post-stress recovery of stress-evoked neuron activations in the paraventricular nucleus, but delayed it in the nucleus of the tractus solitarius. We conclude that, in rats, long-term exercise accelerated recovery of stress-evoked cardiovascular responses differentially altering hypothalamic and medullar neuron activities.
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, National Cheng Kung University , Tainan , Taiwan .
authors.forename: Yuan-Chang
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, National Cheng Kung University , Tainan , Taiwan .
authors.forename: Sheng-Feng
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, National Cheng Kung University , Tainan , Taiwan .|b Institute of Behavioral Medicine, National Cheng Kung University , Tainan , Taiwan .
authors.forename: Lung
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, National Cheng Kung University , Tainan , Taiwan .|c Department of Physiology , National Cheng Kung University , Tainan , Taiwan , and.
authors.forename: Jih-Ing
authors.initials: JI
authors.lastname: Chuang
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, National Cheng Kung University , Tainan , Taiwan .|c Department of Physiology , National Cheng Kung University , Tainan , Taiwan , and.
authors.forename: Fong-Sen
authors.initials: FS
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, National Cheng Kung University , Tainan , Taiwan .|c Department of Physiology , National Cheng Kung University , Tainan , Taiwan , and.
authors.forename: Chauying J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Jen
authors.affiliation: a Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, National Cheng Kung University , Tainan , Taiwan .|d Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy , National Cheng Kung University , Tainan , Taiwan.
authors.forename: Yu-Min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Kuo
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001341:Autonomic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology; D017704:Baroreflex / Q000502:physiology; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D002318:Cardiovascular Diseases; D002319:Cardiovascular System; D005080:Exercise Test; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology; D008297:Male; D010275:Parasympathetic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*; D010286:Paraventricular Hypothalamic Nucleus / Q000503:physiopathology; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal / Q000502:physiology*; D051381:Rats; D017208:Rats, Wistar; D012146:Rest; D012149:Restraint, Physical; D017552:Solitary Nucleus / Q000503:physiopathology; D013312:Stress, Physiological / Q000502:physiology*; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000503:physiopathology*; D013564:Sympathetic Nervous System / Q000503:physiopathology*
keywords: Chronic moderate exercise; autonomic nervous system; baroreflex; cardiovascular control center; stress; treadmill