Endurance exercise training preserves cardiac function in rats receiving doxorubicin and the HER-2 inhibitor GW2974

To determine if endurance exercise training performed prior to administration of the anticancer drugs DOX and GW2974 would be cardioprotective.

Rats remained sedentary or exercise trained for 10 weeks. Following the exercise or sedentary period, rats were randomly assigned to treatment groups. Rats in sedentary and exercise groups received saline or a combination of 10 mg/kg DOX and 30 mg/kg GW2974. Cardiac function was assessed 2, 5, or 10 days following treatments.

Sedentary animals receiving DOX/GW2974 experienced significant cardiac dysfunction. At 2-, 5-, and 10-days post, cardiac function in trained, drug-treated animals was significantly preserved. Additionally, animals exercised prior to DOX/GW2974 injections had significantly lower levels of myocardial lipid peroxidation and caspase-3 and -8 activities compared to their sedentary counterparts.

Exercise training protected against the cardiac dysfunction associated with DOX/GW2974 administration and may be related to an inhibition in apoptotic signaling.