Exercise training attenuates hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy by modulating neurotransmitters and cytokines in hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus.

PLoS One. 2014 Jan 17;9(1):e85481. Jia LL, Kang YM, Wang FX, Li HB, Zhang Y, Yu XJ, Qi J, Suo YP, Tian ZJ, Zhu Z, Zhu GQ, Qin DN. “Regular exercise as an effective non-pharmacological antihypertensive therapy is beneficial for prevention and control of hypertension, but the central mechanisms are unclear”. The authors investigated whether exercise training in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHRs) could delay the progression of hypertension and reduce cardiac hypertrophy in them by balancing the excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters and pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the paraventricular nucleus (PVN). The rats were treadmill trained from 7 to 16 weeks. The authors observed that sedentary SHRs had higher mean arterial pressure and cardiac hypertrophy and these factors were significantly attenuated in the exercise trained SHRs. They authors found that sedentary SHRs had greater concentration of glutamate and norepinephrine and lower concentration of GABA in the PVN compared to their exercise trained counterparts. The authors also measured a number of pro and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the PVN and plasma to suggest that these factors could be involved in mediating reduced sympathetic nerve activity and blood pressure observed in the exercise trained SHRs compared to sedentary SHRs. More translational approach would take these findings along with other similar findings to the next level.-Madhan