幼年期运动裨益中老年心脏健康：“运动记忆效应”及其机制

已知运动具有短期健康效应，但是年轻时的运动锻炼能否裨益于老年健康尚不明确。我们前期发现幼年期运动训练的小鼠即使在成年停止训练，其老龄时经受心脏缺血/再灌注后的心肌损伤较轻且存活率更高，提示幼年运动可提高其老年心脏抗损性，据此提出“运动记忆效应”假说，即幼年期经常运动对机体代谢等的影响可被机体“记忆”，并对老龄心血管健康产生有益影响。本课题拟长程观察小鼠幼年期运动对中老年心血管健康、尤其是心肌线粒体代谢稳态及抗缺血损伤能力的影响及寿命变化，旨在前期发现基础上①明确是否存在“运动记忆效应”及其对老龄心脏健康和寿命的影响，②探讨幼年何种运动剂量可带来中老年心血管裨益，③阐明运动记忆是否主要通过表观遗传机制影响线粒体稳态和心肌代谢。所得结果可望揭示运动对心血管远期效应的一个新作用及机制，为运动裨益心血管健康及青少年体育锻炼策略提供新资料。

Physical exercise has short-term health benefits. However, it is not clear whether early-life exercise exerts long-term effects in aging even after cessation in adulthood. Our previous study has shown that mice subject to exercise training early in life, despite remaining sedentary during adulthood, had improved survival following myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury in aging. This finding suggests that early-life exercise alone produces cardioprotection against myocardial ischemic injury later in life. We hypothesized that there exists “exercise health memory”. In this study, we will investigate whether early-life exercise affects cardiovascular health especially myocardial resistance against ischemia/reperfusion injury in aging, and the life span. We will explore the possible epigenetic mechanisms that explain “exercise health memory”, especially the effects of exercise early in life on myocardial mitochondrial homeostasis and myocardial metabolism. Elucidation of early-life exercise health memory will reveal a novel mechanism of exercise-afforded long-term cardiovascular benefits, and help to develop effective strategies of childhood exercise to prevent cardiovascular diseases later in life.