The Effect of Endurance Exercise on Nitric Oxide System in Apoe-Deficient Mice and Its Intervention from Atherosclerotisis

Objective: The influence of endurance exercise on the function of preventing from atherosclerosis formation and effects of endurance exercise on NO system in ApoE-deficient mice were investigated to probe possible mechanisms of anti-atherosclerosis by endurance exercise. Methods: Twenty-four 8 week old ApoE-deficient mice were selected and divided into atherosclerosis model group and exercise group randomly. There were twelve mice in each group. Mice of exercise group were trained on treadmill for fourteen weeks. Followings were detected: 1) the square of atherosclerotic plaque and pathologi-cal change; 2) the serum NO and the blood lipid; 3) the protein expression of thoracic aortic iNOS and eNOS. Results: The square of aorta plaque was significantly smaller in ApoE-deficient mice of exercise group than that in mice of control group (P0.01). The degree of lesion in aorta wall and tunica intima was lighter in ApoE-deficient mice with endurance exercise. The concentration of serum NO and protein expression of aorta eNOS were significantly increased (P0.01) in ApoE-deficient mice with endurance exercise. The protein expression of aorta iNOS was significantly decreased (P0.05) in ApoE-de - ficient mice with endurance exercise. There was no change on the blood lipid. Conclusions: The present study demonstrated that endurance exercise may contribute to its anti-atherosclerosis function by significantly increasing eNOS protein expression and blood NO level as well as inhibiting iNOS protein expression.