The effect of endurance training on left ventricle serum response factor gene expression in Wistar male rats

Endurance training causes cardiac remodeling and also induces genes expression. Meanwhile, the serum response factor (SRF) is a transcription factor which plays an important role in the remodeling of myocardium at the cellular level. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of endurance training on cardiac expression of SRF gene in wistar male rats. In this experimental study, 14 wistar male rats which were maintained under controlled conditions [temperature, light/dark (12:12) cycle, with ad Libitum access to food and water] were randomly assigned to control and Experimental groups, after the familiarization process. The experimental group performed (a 14 -week) endurance training program on motorized treadmill, and 48 hours after the end of the last session were anesthetized and sacrificed. The left ventricle of the heart was removed. To determine the expression levels of srf gene, Real time RT-PCR method was used and collected data were evaluated using t-test. The hypertrophy evaluation indexes showed that the ratio of left ventricle to the body weight in experimental group (2.3±0.18) was significantly (p=0.05) higher compared to control group (2.049±0.12) and the ratio of left ventricle to body surface area in experimental group (0.168±0.008) was significantly (p=0.01) higher compared to control group (0.153±0.006). Finally the mean of srf gene expression level of left ventricle in experimental group was significantly (p=0.006) higher than control group. Given to the role of this gene in heart remodeling and obtained results that showed endurance training induce cardiac hypertrophy and increase of srf gene expression in left ventricle of trained wistar rats, It seem increase in srf gene expression is a sign for sarcomeres reorganization for adaptation to endurance training.