Effect of 8 weeks endurance training on serum vascular endothelial growth factor and endostatin in Wistar rats

  Introduction: Endurance training increases capillary density in skeletal and heart muscles. But the molecular mechanism of these processes is not yet clear. Substantial evidence indicates that the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF, angiogenic factor) and endostatin (antiangiogenic factor) might play key role in this process. Therefore, we investigated the effect of endurance training on serum levels of VEFG and endostatin in wistar rat.   Materials and Methods: The study was performed in 20 male wistar rats, which were aged between 64 ± 6 days. All rats were subdivided into two groups randomly: endurance training group (n = 10) and sedentary group (n = 10). Therefore, the training group received 8 weeks of treadmill endurance training. At the end of endurance training program, the rats were anesthetized with halothane, and then blood sample was drawn from the descending aorta for measurement of serum levels of VEGF and endostatin. Serum levels of VEGF and endostatin was measured by ELISA method.   Results: Results of the study showed that endurance training increased serum levels of VEGF and decreased endostatin significantly. Furthermore, with adaptation to endurance training VEGF/endostatin ratio increased significantly. Also, VEGF has not significant correlation with endostatin.   Conclusion: These finding suggested that with adaptation to endurance training the balance between angiogenic and angiostatic factor switched to angiogenic factor. These finding may provide new insight into the mechanisms relating to capillary density increment in response of endurance training .