Cardiovascular Risk Factors Emerge After Artificial Selection for Low Aerobic Capacity

TLDR

In humans, the strong statistical association between fitness and survival suggests a link between impaired oxygen metabolism and disease. We hypothesized that artificial selection of rats based on low and high intrinsic exercise capacity would yield models that also contrast for disease risk. After 11 generations of selection, rats with low aerobic capacity exhibited elevated cardiovascular risk factors of metabolic syndrome, reduced levels of transcription factors for mitochondrial biogenesis and oxidative enzymes in skeletal muscle, suggesting that impaired mitochondrial function links reduced fitness to cardiovascular and metabolic disease.

Abstract

In humans, the strong statistical association between fitness and survival suggests a link between impaired oxygen metabolism and disease. We hypothesized that artificial selection of rats based on low and high intrinsic exercise capacity would yield models that also contrast for disease risk. After 11 generations, rats with low aerobic capacity scored high on cardiovascular risk factors that constitute the metabolic syndrome. The decrease in aerobic capacity was associated with decreases in the amounts of transcription factors required for mitochondrial biogenesis and in the amounts of oxidative enzymes in skeletal muscle. Impairment of mitochondrial function may link reduced fitness to cardiovascular and metabolic disease.