Exercise Training Improves Metabo and Mechanoreflex Control in Heart Failure

The so called “exercise pressor reflex” is enhanced in chronic heart failure and drives sympathetic nerve activity during exercise. While exercise training can impact the sensitivity of this reflex, the molecular mechanisms that are at play remain unclear. Listen as Editor-in-Chief Irving H. Zucker interviews lead author Carlos Negrao (University of Sao Paulo) and expert Vaughan Macefield (University of Western Sydney) about the exciting new work by Antunes-Correa et al., who found that exercise training in chronic heart failure patients decreased the muscle mechanoreflex control of sympathetic nerve activity. Did Negrao and colleagues find that molecular abnormalities in skeletal muscle underlie abnormal muscle sympathetic nerve activity in humans with heart failure? Are these effects reversible with exercise training? Listen and learn more.

Ligia M. Antunes-Correa, Thais S. Nobre, Raphaela V. Groehs, Maria-Janieire N.N. Alves, Tiago Fernandes, Gisele K. Couto, Maria Urbana P.B. Rondon, Patricia Alves de Oliveira, Marta Lima, Wilson Mathias Jr., Patricia C. Brum, Charles Mady, Dirceu R. Almeida, Luciana Venturini Rossoni, Edilamar Menezes de Oliveira, Holly R. Middlekauff, Carlos Eduardo Negrao Molecular Basis for the Improvement in Muscle Metaboreflex and Mechanoreflex Control in Exercise-Trained Humans with Chronic Heart Failure Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published December 1, 2014. DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00136.2014.