High-fructose diet suppresses exercise-induced increase in AQP7 expression in the rat heart in vivo

OBJECTIVE: Cardiac uptake of fructose is thought to be mediated by glucose transporter 5 (GLUT5), whereas the uptake of glycerol is facilitated by aquaporin 7 (AQP7). We aimed to investigate the effect of a high-fructose diet (HFD) on GLUT5 and AQP7 levels in the rat heart subjected to exercise. METHODS: Male Sprague-Dawley rats were allocated to control (C; n=11), exercise (E; n=10), HFD (n=12), and HFD plus exercise (HFD-E; n=12) groups. HFD was started 28 days before euthanasia. From day 24 to 27, rats were subjected to moderate exercise, followed by vigorous exercise on day 28 (groups E and HFD-E). Cardiac GLUT5 and AQP7 mRNA levels were determined using RT-PCR. The protein contents of GLUT5 and AQP7 were immunohistochemically assessed. Paired-t, ANOVA with Bonferroni, Kruskal-Wallis, and Bonferroni-corrected Mann-Whitney U tests were used for statistical analysis. RESULTS: GLUT5 mRNA expression and protein content did not differ between the groups. AQP7 mRNA levels significantly increased (4.8-fold) in group E compared with in group C (p<0.001). Compared with group C, no significant change was observed in AQP7 mRNA levels in groups HFD and HFD-E. The AQP7 staining score in group E was significantly higher than that in groups C (p<0.001), E (p<0.001), and HFD-E (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Our study indicates that exercise enhances cardiac AQP7 mRNA expression and protein content. However, HFD prevents the exercise-induced increase in cardiac AQP7 expression. This inhibitory effect may be related to the competition between fructose and glycerol as energy substrates in the rat heart subjected to 5 days of physical exercise.