The effect of 12 weeks of intermittent aerobic exercise on endothelin-1 concentration of plasma in adult rats

Introduction: Endothelin is a vasoconstrictor which is released from the endothelium. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of intermittent aerobic exercise on the endothelin-1 concentration of plasma as an important indicator of cardiovascular diseases, especially hypertension, in Sprague-Dawley rats. Materials and Methods: The subjects of this study were 20 adult male Sprague-Dawley rats with the average weight of 250±4 g and age of 20±2 months. The rats were randomly assigned to two groups of experimental (10 rats) and control (10 rats). The subjects of the experimental group participated in selected intermittent aerobic exercises for 12 weeks. Blood samples were taken 24 hours before and after the training sessions. Results: The results of this study revealed that 12 weeks of intermittent aerobic exercise has a significant effect on decreasing endothelin-1 concentration of plasma (p=0.001), while no significant change was observed in the control group (p=0.24); endotheline-1 fluctuations were significantly different in the exercise and control groups (p=0.022). Conclusion: Intermittent aerobic exercise can be effective in prevention of hypertension or other kinds of cardiovascular diseases through influencing endothelin-1.