Comportamento mecânico do terço proximal de fêmures de ratos após período de suspensão pela cauda e exercitação

BIOCHEMICAL ANALYSIS AND BONE REMODELING IN RESPONSE TO OOPHORECTOMY AND AQUATIC TRAINING

Objective:

To investigate whether swimming could prevent bone loss and could be indicated to assist in treatment of osteoporosis.

Methods:

Female rats were divided into 4 groups (n=6), two of them were oophorectomized. Animals from two groups, one oophorectomized and another not oophorectomized, underwent aquatic training for eight weeks. After training, the animals were sacrificed and their blood was collected for calcium and alkaline phosphatase serum dosage; the femur was removed and subjected to radiological and histological densitometry analysis to assess bone loss and osteoclast counting on femoral head and neck.

Results:

Increase in serum calcium was not observed. There was an increasing activity of alkaline phosphatase in the oophorectomized groups. The radiographs suggest that there was a greater bone mass density in the trained groups. Concerning histology, the trained groups had better tissue structural organization than the sedentary groups. In the oophorectomized and sedentary group, higher presence of osteoclasts was observed a.

Conclusion:

Exercise and oophorectomy did not promote changes in serum calcium levels. The decrease of sex steroids caused by oophorectomy was responsible for severe bone loss, but swimming exercise was able to reduce this loss. Oophorectomy promoted the proliferation of osteoclasts and the exercise proved to be able to diminish it. Level of Evidence I, Experimental Study.

Humanized animal exercise model for clinical implication

Exercise and physical activity function as a patho-physiological process that can prevent, manage, and regulate numerous chronic conditions, including metabolic syndrome and age-related sarcopenia. Because of research ethics and technical difficulties in humans, exercise models using animals are requisite for the future development of exercise mimetics to treat such abnormalities. Moreover, the beneficial or adverse outcomes of a new regime or exercise intervention in the treatment of a specific condition should be tested prior to implementation in a clinical setting. In rodents, treadmill running (or swimming) and ladder climbing are widely used as aerobic and anaerobic exercise models, respectively. However, exercise models are not limited to these types. Indeed, there are no golden standard exercise modes or protocols for managing or improving health status since the types (aerobic vs. anaerobic), time (morning vs. evening), and duration (continuous vs. acute bouts) of exercise are the critical determinants for achieving expected beneficial effects. To provide insight into the understanding of exercise and exercise physiology, we have summarized current animal exercise models largely based on aerobic and anaerobic criteria. Additionally, specialized exercise models that have been developed for testing the effect of exercise on specific physiological conditions are presented. Finally, we provide suggestions and/or considerations for developing a new regime for an exercise model.