Research published in the current issue of <<>> reinforces the belief that aerobic capacity is an important determinant in the continuum between health and disease.
"Our data clearly show that the some of the major health problems of today, namely obesity, hypertension, and insulin resistance, are strongly influenced by our genes," said Steven Swoap, associate professor of biology at metabolic syndrome, a member of the research team. "Coupled with our current environment of physical inactivity and over-abundance of food, this "metabolic syndrome" will become the primary health issue of the 21st century"
The research paper is titled "Cardiovascular Risk Factors from Artificial Selection for Low Aerobic Capacity in Rats."
Along with researchers from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology; St. Olav's Hospital in Trondhelm, Norway; the Medical College of Ohio; and the University of Michigan, Swoap examined rats that had been genetically selected for high or low proficiency in endurance running.
"In humans, the strong statistical association between fitness and survival suggests a link between impaired oxygen metabolism and disease," the article reports. "[Indeed,] after 11 generations, rats with low aerobic capacity scored high on cardiovascular risk factors that constitute the metabolic syndrome."
Swoap's research "supports the notion that impaired regulation of oxidative pathways in mitochondria may be a common factor liking reduced total-body aerobic capacity to cardiovascular and metabolic disease."
His research has been published in the American Journal of Physiology, the Journal of Experimental Biology and the Journal of Applied Physiology and is supported through multi-year grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). The NIH awarded him nearly $100,000 to determine why skeletal muscle becomes more fatigable after disuse, and the NSF has funded his research on the mechanism of how restricting caloric intake lowers blood pressure, with grants totaling more than $700,000.