Exercise and Chemoreflex Control of Renal Blood Flow in Chronic Heart Failure

It is well known that reduced kidney function in chronic heart failure (CHF) patients leads to morbidity and mortality in a significant proportion of this clinical population. So how does exercise training fit into the picture? In this podcast, Deputy Editor Merry Lindsey (University of Mississippi Medical Center) interviews lead author Noah Marcus (Des Moines University) and content expert Timothy Musch (Kansas State University) about the innovative work by Marcus and colleagues utilizing a unique rabbit exercise training experimental model of poor renal function in CHF with reduced renal perfusion. We tackle a number of intriguing questions in this author interview! Does enhanced carotid body chemoreceptor activity mediate tonic and/or hypoxia-induced reductions in renal blood flow in heart failure? Can exercise training be used as a non-pharmacological treatment to improve renal blood flow in heart failure patients? Do rabbits really run on a treadmill? Listen to find out.

Noah J. Marcus, Carolin Pügge, Jai Mediratta, Alicia M. Schiller, Rodrigo Del Rio, Irving H. Zucker, Harold D. Schultz Exercise training attenuates chemoreflex-mediated reductions of renal blood flow in heart failure Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol, published July 15, 2015, DOI: 10.1152/ajpheart.00268.2015.