[Effect of exercise on rats with renal injury]

Effect of exercise on rats with renal injury was studied. Nephritis was induced in rats by injection of anti-GBM antibody followed by ligation of a branch of the left renal artery after nephrectomy of the right kidney. Moderate daily treadmill exercise was forced on these experimental rats for ten weeks. Sedentary nephritic rats that received the same treatment described above served as controls. The sedentary nephritic rats suffered progressively increasing proteinuria during the time course of the experiment, whereas the nephritic rats with daily treadmill exercise experienced less proteinuria. Mild proteinuria was induced by daily treadmill exercise forced on non-nephritic rats that had received only nephrectomy of the right kidney, but no NTS injection. Light microscopy and immunofluorescence microscopy revealed severe glomerular injury in the sedentary nephritic rats, however, less glomerular injury was seen in nephritic rats with treadmill exercise. Serum cholesterol level was higher in the sedentary rats than in the rats with daily treadmill exercise. The results suggest that daily exercise by nephritic rats will not aggravate renal injury.