Effect of swimming exercise on the progress of renal dysfunction in rat with focal glomerulosclerosis

The effect of exercise on the progression of experimental renal disease was studied in adriamycin (ADR)-treated rats, a model of sclerosing glomerulonephritis with nephrotic syndrome. Two hours of daily swimming exercise was carried out for 20 weeks in ADR-treated male Lewis rats fed with either an ad libitum intake of regular chow (group 1) or a restricted amount of food (group 3), which was equal to the amount of food freely ingested by ADR-treated rats not undergoing swimming exercise (group 2). Group 3 resulted in a significantly lower serum creatinine, higher inulin clearance and lower glomerular sclerosis index compared to group 2. The progress of renal dysfunction did not differ significantly between group 1 and group 2. Hyperlipidemia, especially, hypertriglyceridemia was significantly lower in the exercise groups than in the sedentary group. Among all the rats, inulin clearance was inversely correlated with either cholesterol (r = 0.560, p less than 0.01) or triglyceride (r = 0.423, p less than 0.05) and the glomerular sclerosis index correlated positively with cholesterol (r = 0.599, p less than 0.005). Systolic blood pressure was 10 mm Hg lower in group 3 than in group 2 and the difference was significant. It is concluded that swimming exercise with a relative restriction of food intake can improve hyperlipidemia and prevent progressive renal dysfunction in ADR-induced nephritic rats.