Irving H. Zucker will present a seminar entitled “Central Oxidative Stress in Chronic Heart Failure: Modulation by Exercise Training” for the Dept. of Biochemistry / Redox Biology Center Seminar Series on May 15. Zucker has been interested in autonomic regulation in disease states. This includes cardiovascular reflexes that set the level of sympathetic tone in heart failure. Sympatho-excitatory areas of the CNS exhibit high levels of oxidative stress in heart failure. The increase in superoxide production is mediated by central Angiotensin II and the AT1 receptor.

Our studies document this oxidative stress in the rostral ventrolateral medulla of rabbits and rats with chronic heart failure. Furthermore, we show a reduction in oxidative stress and in AT1R receptor expression following exercise training in the heart failure state. This reduction is, in part, due to an upregulation of both SOD1 and SOD2. Finally, humans with heart failure also exhibit high oxidative stress which can be ameliorated by either exercise training or statin therapy. These studies provide insight into a potential central mechanism for sympatho-excitation in this disease state.