Background: Eccentric exercise training has been shown to improve muscle force strength without excessive cardiovascular stress. Such an exercise modality deserves to be tested in pulmonary arterial hypertension.
Aim: We aimed to assess the effects of an eccentric training modality on cardiac function and survival in an experimental monocrotaline-induced model of pulmonary arterial hypertension with right ventricular dysfunction.
Methods: Forty rats were randomly assigned to one of four groups: 40mg/kg monocrotaline-injected sedentary rats; 40mg/kg monocrotaline-injected eccentric-trained rats; sedentary control rats; or eccentric-trained control rats. Eccentric exercise training consisted of downhill running on a treadmill with a -15° slope for 30minutes, 5 days a week for 4 weeks. Training tolerance was assessed by echocardiography, right ventricle catheterization and the rats' maximal eccentric speed.
Results: Survival in monocrotaline-injected eccentric-trained rats was not different from that in monocrotaline-injected sedentary rats. Monocrotaline-injected eccentric-trained rats tolerated this training modality well, and haemodynamic status did not deteriorate further compared with monocrotaline-injected sedentary rats. The eccentric maximal speed decline was less pronounced in trained compared with sedentary pulmonary arterial hypertension rats.
Conclusions: Eccentric exercise training had no detrimental effects on right heart pressure, cardiac function and survival in rats with stable monocrotaline-induced pulmonary hypertension.
Keywords: Dysfonction ventriculaire droite; Eccentric exercise; Echocardiography; Entraînement; Exercice excentrique; Hypertension pulmonaire; Monocrotaline; Pulmonary hypertension; Right ventricular dysfunction; Training; Échocardiographie.
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