Cardiac hypertrophy in mice : an honors thesis (HONRS 499)

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Authors
Sweeney, Erin E.
Advisor
McDowell, Susan A.
Issue Date
2005
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (B.?.)
Department
Honors College
Other Identifiers
Abstract

Cardiac hypertrophy is defined as an increase in heart weight: body weight (HW:BW) and occurs in two different situations. Cardiac hypertrophy can be caused by exercise (physical induction) or heart disease (pathological induction), each caused by phosphoinositide 3-kinase (PI3K). Swim training was performed on female and male C57/BL6 mice. The mice were subjected to a swimming schedule that started with a 5 minute swim twice a day for a week, then increased to 10 minutes for two days and increased in 10 minute increments every other day until a 90-minute swim session was reached and maintained for 4 weeks. The mice swam 7 days a week throughout the study. The HW:BW of the males increased by 32 percent, but the females only increased by 8 percent. We concluded that swim training does significantly cause cardiac hypertrophy in male mice.