The Effect of Endurance Training on Plasma Levels of ICAM, VCAM, and OPG in Rats with Experimental Myocardial Infarction: A Gender-Based Study

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of four weeks of endurance training (EXE) on inflammatory markers predicting atherosclerosis by gender.

Forty male and female Wistar rats were divided into 4 groups including male myocardial infarction (MI), male MI + EXE, female MI, and female MI+EXE. After the induction of MI with two intraperitoneal injections of isoproterenol (150 mg/kg), the training groups performed an (EXE) program for 4 weeks on a treadmill (speed 18 m/min, 30 minutes, 5 sessions per week). The animals were sacrificed 24 hours after the last training session. Finally, data were analyzed using a two-way analysis of variance and Fishers’ least significant difference post hoc test.

Despite the clinical difference in the training groups, the intercellular adhesion molecule (ICAM, 3.74±0.61 ng/mL) was more significant in the female MI + EXE group (P = 0.009).

In general, despite observing clinical changes, there were no significant vascular cell adhesion molecules and osteoprotegerin (OPG) after EXE in cardiovascular inflammatory factors in male and female rats following MI. Nevertheless, gender had a significant independent effect on the ICAM index. The results showed that ICAM values were higher in female rats in comparison with male rats.