Research Paper Volume 8, Issue 11 pp 2897—2914

Figure 3. Voluntary aerobic exercise increases arterial resilience to acute simulated Western diet stress. (A) and (B) Peak endothelium-dependent dilation (EDD) and EDD AUC to acetylcholine (ACh) alone (black bars, n=10-12/group, shown again here for clarity), in the presence of simulated Western diet (8 mM glucose + 160 µM palmitate; yellow hashed bars, n=4-8/group), and simulated Western diet + MitoQ (green hashed bars, n=4-8/group) in carotid arteries from young control (YC), old control (OC), young voluntary wheel running (YVR) and old voluntary wheel running mice (OVR). (C) Relative reduction in peak EDD in the presence vs. absence of simulated Western diet in arteries from YC, OC, YVR and OVR mice. (D) EDD dose-response curves to ACh in the acute presence of simulated Western diet (yellow symbols with solid lines) and simulated Western diet + MitoQ (green symbols with dashed lines) in carotid arteries from YC, OC, YVR and OVR mice. Data are presented as means with error bars representing SEM. * p<0.05 within-group versus ACh alone (repeated measures ANOVA), ^ p<0.05 within-group versus simulated Western diet (repeated measures ANOVA), ^# p<0.05 vs. all other groups (one-way ANOVA), ^a p<0.05 relative change in EDD vs. all other groups, ^b p<0.05 within-group vs. simulated Western diet alone.