Correlation between functional capacity and oxidative stress and inflammation in hemodialysis patients

Blood pressure and ECG variables of healthy young males and females participating in moderate aerobic exercise

INTRODUCTION

Changes in blood pressure and electrocardiogram are important factors that determine exercise testing. This study investigated blood pressure and electrocardiogram (ECG) changes in healthy young adults after performing acute moderate aerobic exercise protocols.

METHODS

Forty young healthy untrained non-athletes, twenty males and twenty females (age, 25 ± 5.6 years; body weight, 65 ± 4.0 kg; body height, 176.9 ± 2.5 cm) were recruited for the study. The exercise regimen was acute moderate exercise for 20 min on a treadmill consistently for 14 days daily at the speed of 13 km/h. The body weight, blood pressure, and electrocardiograph were measured before and after exercise.

RESULTS

There was a significant reduction (P < 0.05) in body weight (59 ± 3.2 kg) of female participants after 14 days of aerobic exercise relative to their baseline mean value (63 ± 2.9 kg). The systolic blood pressure decreased (P < 0.05) in males (117 ± 1.1 mmHg) and females (117 ± 1.0 mmHg) when compared to the mean baseline values in males (127 ± 1.3 mmHg) and females (128 ±0 .3 mmHg). The diastolic blood pressure also decreased (P < 0.05) in male (71 ± 0.88 mmHg) participants after exercise when compared to the baseline mean values (79 ± 1.2 mmHg) while there was no change in diastolic blood pressure of females. The ECG parameters remained unchanged, while the heart rate (75 ± 1.3 beats/min) increased (P < 0.05) after exercise in all participants relative to the baseline (69 ± 2 beats/min).

CONCLUSION

The results suggest that moderate aerobic exercise normalized blood pressure and electrical activity of the heart while reducing heart rate after 14 days of consistent aerobic exercise in healthy individuals.

The impact of physical activity on promoter-specific methylation of genes involved in the redox-status and disease progression: A longitudinal study on post-surgery female breast cancer patients undergoing medical treatment

Most anticancer treatments act on oxidative-stress pathways by producing reactive oxygen species (ROS) to kill cancer cells, commonly resulting in consequential drug-induced systemic cytotoxicity. Physical activity (PA) has arisen as an integrative cancer therapy, having positive health effects, including in redox-homeostasis. Here, we investigated the impact of an online supervised PA program on promoter-specific DNA methylation, and corresponding gene expression/activity, in 3 antioxidants- (SOD1, SOD2, and CAT) and 3 breast cancer (BC)-related genes (BRCA1, L3MBTL1 and RASSF1A) in a population-based sample of women diagnosed with primary BC, undergoing medical treatment. We further examined mechanisms involved in methylating and demethylating pathways, predicted biological pathways and interactions of exercise-modulated molecules, and the functional relevance of modulated antioxidant markers on parameters related to aerobic capacity/endurance, physical fatigue and quality of life (QoL). PA maintained levels of SOD activity in blood plasma, and at the cellular level significantly increased SOD2 mRNA (≈+77 %), contrary to their depletion due to medical treatment. This change was inversely correlated with DNA methylation in SOD2 promoter (≈-20 %). Similarly, we found a significant effect of PA only on L3MBTL1 promoter methylation (≈-25 %), which was inversely correlated with its mRNA (≈+43 %). Finally, PA increased TET1 mRNA levels (≈+15 %) and decreased expression of DNMT3B mRNA (≈-28 %). Our results suggest that PA-modulated DNA methylation affects several signalling pathways/biological activities involved in the cellular oxidative stress response, chromatin organization/regulation, antioxidant activity and DNA/protein binding. These changes may positively impact clinical outcomes and improve the response to cancer treatment in post-surgery BC patients.