Rodent cages equipped with access to a voluntary running wheel are commonly used to study the effects of aerobic physical activity on physiology and behavior. Notable discoveries in exercise neurobiology, including the key role of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in neural plasticity and cognition, have been made using rodents housed with voluntary running wheels. A […]
Abstract Environmental factors have long been known to regulate brain plasticity. We investigated the potential influence of social experience on ocular dominance plasticity. Fully adult female or male mice were monocularly deprived for four days and kept a) either alone or in pairs of the same sex and b) either in a small cage or […]
Abstract We tested the hypothesis that aging will exacerbate the negative vascular consequences of exposure to a common physiological stressor, i.e., consumption of a “western” (high fat/high sucrose) diet (WD), by inducing superoxide-associated reductions in nitric oxide (NO) bioavailability, and that this would be prevented by voluntary aerobic exercise. Incremental stiffness and endothelium-dependent dilation (EDD) […]
Abstract Exercise confers numerous health benefits, many of which are thought to stem from exercise-induced mitochondrial biogenesis (EIMB) in skeletal muscle. The transcriptional coactivator PGC-1?, a potent regulator of metabolism in numerous tissues, is widely believed to be required for EIMB. We show here that this is not the case. Mice engineered to lack PGC-1? […]
Abstract Long-term freewheel training in young animals decreases intestinal lymphocyte expression of inflammatory cytokines and apoptotic proteins. Little is known about these responses in older animals. PURPOSE: This study aimed to evaluate the effect of training on intestinal lymphocyte expression of proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines and proapoptotic and anti-apoptotic proteins after an acute exercise challenge […]
Abstract Estradiol (E(2)) treatment in young adult, ovariectomized mice increases physical activity and reverses deleterious effects on skeletal muscle. Here we test the hypothesis that E(2) treatment improves muscle function and physical activity in aged, ovarian-senescent mice. Plasma E(2) levels and vaginal cytology confirmed ovarian senescence in 20-month-old C57BL/6 mice. Mice were then randomly divided […]