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(Circulation Research. 2002;91:e2.)
© 2002 American Heart Association, Inc.

Letters to the Editor

Exercise Does Not Protect the Female Heart: An Unconvincing Conclusion?

Lei Xi

Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, Va, lxi@vcu.edu

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

To the Editor:

The recent article by Paroo et al¹ addressed an important issue relating to the sex difference in exercise-induced late cardioprotection against ischemia-reperfusion (I-R) injury. This study prompts a few concerns that I would like to share with the Editors and the readers of Circulation Research.

(1) Exercise-induced cardioprotection in females. In this study, Paroo et al¹ reported a rather provocative finding showing no exercise-induced cardioprotection in female rats compared with males, which challenges the common sense that moderate exercise could benefit both males and females in reducing cardiovascular risk factors and improving postinfarct heart function and survival. Unfortunately, these authors ignored the fact that a number of studies by several research groups have independently demonstrated the exercise-induced cardioprotection against I-R injury in female rats^2–4 or dogs.⁵ In particular, there is an obvious discrepancy between their experimental data and those of Ji et al, ² Taylor et al,³ and Hamilton et al,⁴ who were able to find enhanced postischemic ventricular contractile function in female rats after exercise training.

(2) Hsp70 as the primary determinant in delayed cardioprotection. Contrary to what Paroo et al¹ concluded on the critical role of Hsp70, the above-mentioned studies in female rats^3,4 suggested that exercise-induced cardioprotection is not dependent on Hsp70, given that exercise under either cold or warm environment resulted in similar cardiac resistance to I-R despite the blunted Hsp70 induction in the cold group compared with the warm group. In addition, recent studies from our group^6–8 and many others^9–11 showed that Hsp70 is . . . [Full Text of this Article]