Effect of swimming exercise to cardiac PGC-1 α and HIF-1 α gene expression in mice

Background: Hypoxia caused by exercise condition may alter PGC-1α and HIF-1α expression in cardiac cells. Both factors are transcriptional factors which play a role in conserving energy during metabolic process. However, there is less information about the effects of long term moderate intensity exercise such as swimming on PGC-1α and HIF-1α expression in cardiac cells. Objectives: Aim of this study is to observe the effect of force swimming exercise on the expression PGC-1α and HIF-1α gene expression in cardiac muscle of mice. Methods: Male BALBc mice were divided into two groups (n = 10): control (C) and swimming (ST). ST group was subjected to moderate intensity swimming for 4 weeks, 30 minutes/day for 5 days. Hearts of animal models were preserved for cardiac morphology study using HE staining, PGC-1α and HIF-1α mRNA expression study. Results: We observed that cardiac PGC-1α expression in ST was significantly increased 1.5 fold compared with control group (0.64 vs 0.44; CI = 95%, -0.378 - 0.019; P = 0.035), but expression of HIF-1α was significantly decreased 0.4 times lower than control group (0.35 vs 0.52; CI = 95%, 0.27 - 0.31; P = 0,025). Conclusions: Taken together, ST group increased the expression of PGC-1α but decreased the expression of HIF-1α in mice cardiac muscle in response to chronic hypoxia condition.