effects of resistance and endurance training on hif-1α and vegf in heart tissues of pregnant rats with cadmium toxicity

Background: exposure to cadmium can cause cardiovascular disorders, including possible risks of angiogenesis abnormalities associated with hypoxia inducible factor (hif), in pregnancy period. objectives: this study aimed to investigate the effects of resistance and endurance training on hif-1α and vascular endothelial growth factor (vegf) levels in heart tissue of pregnant rats with cadmium toxicity. methods: in this study, 48 female rats were selected and divided into 6 groups of 8 rats, including (1) cadmium, (2) resistance training, (3) resistance training with cadmium consumption, (4) endurance training, (5) endurance training with cadmium consumption, and (6) control. groups 2, 3, 4, and 5 performed three weeks of resistance and endurance training, five sessions per week. also, groups 1, 3, and 5 received cadmium as cadmium chloride dissolved in water as 400 mg per liter through drinking water. to analyze the data, kolmogorov-smirnov, one-way anova, and tukey’s post hoc tests were used and p≤0.05 was considered statistically significant. results: cadmium had a significant effect on the increase of hif1α- and vegf (p = 0.001); resistance training had a significant effect on the increase of hif1-α (p = 0.03), resistance training (p = 0.02) and endurance training (p = 0.001) had a significant effect on the increase of vegf. also, resistance training with cadmium consumption as well as endurance training with cadmium consumption significantly decreased hif1- α(p = 0.001) and vegf (p = 0.001), compared with cadmium consumption. conclusions: cadmium appears to lead to an abnormal increase in hif-1α and vegf in the heart tissues of pregnant rats, which can stimulate abnormal angiogenesis of tumors; however, resistance and endurance training can reduce the severity of cadmium effects on abnormal angiogenesis of the heart tissue of pregnant rats.