Department of Biology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Department of Biology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
Exp Gerontol. 2014 Feb;50:106-13. doi: 10.1016/j.exger.2013.11.013. Epub 2013 Dec 3.
A rapidly aging global population has motivated the development and use of models for human aging. Studies on aging have shown parallels between zebrafish and humans at the internal organization level; however, few parallels have been studied at the whole-organism level. Furthermore, the effectiveness of exercise as a method to mitigate the effects of aging has not been studied in zebrafish. We investigated the effects of aging and intermittent exercise on swimming performance, kinematics and behavior. Young, middle-aged and old zebrafish (20-29, 36-48 and 60-71% of average lifespan, respectively) were exercised to exhaustion in endurance and sprint swimming tests once a week for four weeks. Both endurance and sprint performance decreased with increased age. Swimming performance improved with exercise training in young and middle-aged zebrafish, but not in old zebrafish. Tail-beat amplitude, which is akin to stride length in humans, increased for all age groups with training. Zebrafish turning frequency, which is an indicator of routine activity, decreased with age but showed no change with exercise. In sum, our results show that zebrafish exhibit a decline in whole-organism performance and trainability with age. These findings closely resemble the senescence-related declines in physical ability experienced by humans and mammalian aging models and therefore support the use of zebrafish as a model for human exercise and aging.
快速老龄化的全球人口推动了人类衰老模型的发展和应用。衰老研究表明，在内部组织水平上，斑马鱼和人类之间存在相似性；然而，在整体水平上，很少有相似性得到研究。此外，运动作为减轻衰老影响的方法在斑马鱼中的有效性尚未得到研究。我们研究了衰老和间歇性运动对游泳性能、运动学和行为的影响。年轻、中年和老年斑马鱼（分别为平均寿命的 20-29%、36-48%和 60-71%）在耐力和冲刺游泳测试中每周一次进行竭尽所能的运动，持续四周。随着年龄的增长，耐力和冲刺性能都有所下降。在年轻和中年斑马鱼中，运动训练提高了游泳性能，但在老年斑马鱼中没有提高。与人类的步幅相似的尾拍幅度在所有年龄组中都随着训练而增加。作为日常活动指标的斑马鱼转弯频率随年龄增长而下降，但运动训练没有改变。总之，我们的结果表明，斑马鱼随着年龄的增长表现出整体性能和可训练性下降。这些发现与人类和哺乳动物衰老模型中与衰老相关的身体能力下降非常相似，因此支持将斑马鱼作为人类运动和衰老的模型。
