Exercise preconditioning provides early cardioprotection against exhaustive exercise in rats: potential involvement of protein kinase C delta translocation

The objective of this study was to investigate the early cardioprotective effect of exercise preconditioning (EP) on the exhaustive exercise-induced myocardial injury in rats and the role of protein kinase C delta isoform (PKC delta) in EP. Rats were subjected to run on the treadmill for four periods of 10 min each at 30 m/min with intervening periods of rest of 10 min as an EP protocol. The exhaustive exercise was performed 0.5 h after EP. PKC inhibitor chelerythrine (CHE) was injected before EP. Our results showed that EP markedly attenuated the exhaustive exercise-induced myocardial ischemia/hypoxia, ultrastructural damage, high serum cTnI, and NT-proBNP levels. CHE injection before EP did not abolish the protection of EP. Both exhaustive exercise and EP produced a significant increase in PKC delta and p-PKC delta(Thr507) protein levels in cardiomyocytes. However, the immunostaining of p-PKC delta(Thr507) in EP cardiomyocytes was primarily localized to intercalated disks and nuclei while the exhaustive exercise-induced high level p-PKC delta(Thr507) was mainly distributed in the cytoplasm. Moreover, the high PKC delta and p-PKC delta(Thr507) levels in exhaustive exercise were significantly down-regulated by EP. CHE did not attenuate the expressions of PKC delta and p-PKC delta(Thr507). These results indicate that an appropriate activation and translocation of PKC delta may represent a mechanism whereby EP can exert an early cardioprotection against exhaustive exercise-induced myocardial injury.