Cardiac responses to exercise training in male and female rats

The purpose of the present study was to determine if contractile function adapts to physical training in the same way in hearts of male and female rats. Male and female rats were trained with a running program sufficient to cause equal increases in cytochrome oxidase activity in gastrocnemius muscles in both groups. Hearts were then studied in an isolated perfused working rat heart apparatus with varying preloads and fixed afterloads. Five groups were studied: 1) free-eating sedentary males (MS-FE); 2) running males (MR); 3) sedentary females (FS); 4) running females (FR); and 5) food-restricted sedentary; males (MS-FR). Heart weights were similar in MS-FE and MR and in FS, FR, and MS-Fr. Stroke work, stroke volume, coronary flow, and myocardial oxygen consumption were significantly higher in MR than in MS-FE but were almost identical in FR and FS. MS-FR showed stroke work, stroke volume, and ejection fractions that were similar to MR but higher than MS-FE and both female groups. Thus when hearts of equal weights were compared, a training effect was only seen in males. These results suggest that despite similar skeletal muscle adaptations, hearts of male rats adapt to physical training by running with improved intrinsic performance, whereas hearts of female rats do not.