Search

Highlights 1. Both HFD/APOB-100 males and females developed obesity and hypercholesterolemia; however, only males presented insulin resistance. Exercise training did not change these metabolic parameters significantly. 2. HFD/APOB-100 males showed echocardiographic signs of mild heart failure with thinner walls and dilated ventricles, whereas females developed a starting left ventricular hypertrophy assessed by echocardiography and histology. 3. In response to exercise training, SD/WT males developed increased left ventricular volumes, and females presented physiologic hypertrophy. 4. Exercise-trained HFD/APOB-100 males presented worsening heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. On the contrary, exercise-trained HFD/APOB-100 females reversed the echocardiographic signs of left ventricular hypertrophy. 5. Sex, metabolic syndrome, and exercise training alter the gene expression pattern of the myocardium, which may be involved in the development of sex-specific cardiac alterations in the state of metabolic syndrome or to exercise training.

Highlights 1. There was no difference in the severity of chronic kidney disease (CKD) between male and female rats based on serum urea and creatinine levels as well as creatinine clearance. 2. As compared to females, males developed a more severe uremic cardiomyopathy characterized by left ventricular hypertrophy and fibrosis in CKD based on echocardiography and histology. 3. Following ischemia/reperfusion, infarct size was significantly smaller in females than in males, both in the sham-operated and CKD groups. 4. The infarct size-limiting effect of ischemic preconditioning (IPRE) was preserved in both sexes in CKD despite the more severe uremic cardiomyopathy in male CKD rats. 5. IPRE significantly increased the phospho-STAT3/STAT3 ratio in sham-operated, but not in CKD animals in both sexes.