Resistance training improves aortic structure in Wistar rats.
Romeu R Souza, Elias de França, Diana Madureira and 3 others
PMID 28583407WHAT IT FOUND
In rats, 12 weeks of weighted ladder training increased aortic wall thickness, smooth muscle nuclei, elastic laminae and collagen.
Body weight and blood pressure did not differ. The findings are about rat aortas, not human patients.
Key findings
01Resistance trained rats had greater aortic wall thickness (121.31 ± 1.25 μm in controls vs 204.94 ± 2.65 μm in trained rats), larger smooth muscle cell nuclei (23.1 ± 1.3 μm3 vs 25.6 ± 3.1 μm3), more elastic laminae (11.71 ± 0.24 vs 14.06 ± 0.24), greater elastic lamina surface density (16.44 ± 0.77 vs 20.4 ± 0.77), and higher collagen density (2.1 ± 0.5% vs 3.8 ± 0.4%).
02Left ventricular weight was 0.78 ± 0.02 g in controls and 0.90 ± 0.05 g in trained rats; left ventricular wall thickness was 2.09 ± 0.03 mm in controls and 2.79 ± 0.2 mm in trained rats; left ventricular internal diameter was 0.71 ± 0.04 cm in controls and 0.64 ± 0.03 cm in trained rats.
03After 12 weeks, body weight and blood pressure did not differ significantly between groups.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they found
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What it does not show
The study used ten rats in each group. The study used rats, not people, so aortic wall changes cannot be assumed to occur in human patients. The outcomes were microscopic heart and aorta measurements, not patient function, symptoms, injury risk, or training response. The paper does not say whether researchers were blinded when measuring outcomes. The paper does not report adverse events or how the animal training load would translate to human resistance training.
Declared interests
The authors declare no conflicts of interest. The paper does not state who funded the work.
The easy way to misread this
Do not conclude that resistance training improves human aortic structure or cardiovascular health. The study measured rat aortas after a weighted ladder training protocol, and it did not test patients, symptoms, function, or long term outcomes.