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. 2020 May 29;9(5):bio045260.
doi: 10.1242/bio.045260.

Endurance exercise protects aging Drosophila from high-salt diet (HSD)-induced climbing capacity decline and lifespan decrease by enhancing antioxidant capacity

Deng-Tai Wen  1 , Wei-Qing Wang  2 , Wen-Qi Hou  2 , Shu-Xian Cai  3 , Shuai-Shuai Zhai  2
Affiliations

Endurance exercise protects aging Drosophila from high-salt diet (HSD)-induced climbing capacity decline and lifespan decrease by enhancing antioxidant capacity

Deng-Tai Wen et al. Biol Open. .

Abstract

A high-salt diet (HSD) is a major cause of many chronic and age-related defects such as myocardial hypertrophy, locomotor impairment and mortality. Exercise training can efficiently prevent and treat many chronic and age-related diseases. However, it remains unclear whether endurance exercise can resist HSD-induced impairment of climbing capacity and longevity in aging individuals. In our study, flies were given exercise training and fed a HSD from 1-week old to 5-weeks old. Overexpression or knockdown of salt and dFOXO were built by UAS/Gal4 system. The results showed that a HSD, salt gene overexpression and dFOXO knockdown significantly reduced climbing endurance, climbing index, survival, dFOXO expression and SOD activity level, and increased malondialdehyde level in aging flies. Inversely, in a HSD aging flies, endurance exercise and dFOXO overexpression significantly increased their climbing ability, lifespan and antioxidant capacity, but they did not significantly change the salt gene expression. Overall, current results indicated that a HSD accelerated the age-related decline of climbing capacity and mortality via upregulating salt expression and inhibiting the dFOXO/SOD pathway. Increased dFOXO/SOD pathway activity played a key role in mediating endurance exercise resistance to the low salt tolerance-induced impairment of climbing capacity and longevity in aging DrosophilaThis article has an associated First Person interview with the first author of the paper.

Keywords: Aging; Climbing ability; Exercise; High-salt diet; Lifespan; dFOXO/SOD.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing or financial interests.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
The effect of HSDs on climbing capacity and mortality in aging flies. (A) An image of HSD flies drinking water. (B) Time to fatigue of 1-week-old flies. (C) Time to fatigue of 3-week-old flies. (D) Time to fatigue of 5-week-old flies. (E) Time to fatigue in w1118 flies. (F) Time to fatigue in 2%-SD flies. (G) Time to fatigue in 4%-SD flies. (H) Time to fatigue in 8%-SD flies. (I) The climbing index changes with aging. (J) The climbing index in HSD flies. (K) The curves of survival and the average lifespan. Using a non-parametric followed by a log-rank test to analyze ‘survival’ and ‘time to fatigue’. The one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) with least significant difference (LSD) tests were used to identify differences among the ‘w1118’, ‘w1118+2%salt’, ‘w1118+4%salt’ and ‘w1118+8%salt’ flies. Data are represented as means±s.e.m. *P<0.05; **P<0.01; ***P<0.001.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
The effect of exercise training on climbing capacity and mortality in HSD and aging flies. (A). Time to fatigue of 1-week-old and w1118 flies. (B) Time to fatigue of 1-week-old and 2%-SD flies. (C) Time to fatigue of 1-week-old and 4%-SD flies. (D) Time to fatigue of 1-week-old and 8%-SD flies. (E) Time to fatigue of 3-week-old and w1118 flies. (F) Time to fatigue of 3-week-old and 2%-SD flies. (G) Time to fatigue of 3-week-old and 4%-SD flies. (H) Time to fatigue of 3-week-old and 8%-SD flies. (I) Time to fatigue of 5-week-old and w1118 flies. (J) Time to fatigue of 5-week-old and 2%-SD flies. (K) Time to fatigue of 5-week-old and 4%-SD flies. (L) Time to fatigue of 5-week-old and 8%-SD flies. (M) The climbing index in w1118 flies. (N) The climbing index in 2%-SD flies. (O) The climbing index in 4%-SD flies. (P) The climbing index in 8%-SD flies. (Q) The curves of survival and the average lifespan of w1118 flies. (R) The curves of survival and the average lifespan of 2%-salt-diet flies. (S) The curves of survival and the average lifespan of 4%-SD flies. (T) The curves of survival and the average lifespan of 8%-SD flies. Using a non-parametric followed by a log-rank test for analyze survival and time to fatigue. A two-way ANOVA was used to analyze the effects of exercise and aging on climbing index of ‘no exercise’ and ‘exercise’ flies. Data are represented as means±s.e.m. *P<0.05; **P<0.01.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
The effect of exercise training and HSD on the expression of Salt and antioxidant capacity in aged flies. (A) The salt expression. (B) The dFOXO expression. (C) The SOD activity level. (D) The MDA level. Independent-sample t-tests were used to assess differences between the no exercise and exercise flies. Data are represented as means±s.e.m. *P<0.05; **P<0.01.
Fig. 4.
Fig. 4.
The effect of exercise training on climbing capacity and mortality in aging and salt-overexpression flies. (A) Time to fatigue of 1-week-old flies. (B) Time to fatigue of 3-week-old flies. (C) Time to fatigue of 5-week-old flies. (D) The climbing index changes with aging in salt-overexpression flies. (E) The climbing index. (F) The curves of survival. (G) The average lifespan. (H) The salt expression. (I) The dFOXO expression. (J) The SOD activity level. (K) The MDA level. Using a non-parametric followed by a log-rank test for analyze survival and time to fatigue. One-way ANOVA with LSD tests were used to identify differences among the ‘salt-control’, ‘salt-overexpression’, and ‘salt-overexpression+exercise’ flies. Data are represented as means±s.e.m. *P<0.05; **P<0.01.
Fig. 5.
Fig. 5.
The effect of HSD on climbing capacity and mortality in aging and salt-RNAi flies. (A) Time to fatigue of 1-week-old flies. (B) Time to fatigue of 3-week-old flies. (C) Time to fatigue of 5-week-old flies. (D) The climbing index changes with aging in salt-overexpression flies. (E) The climbing index. (F) The curves of survival. (G) The average lifespan. (H) The salt expression. (I) The dFOXO expression. (J) The SOD activity level. (K) The MDA level. Using a nonparametric followed by a log-rank test for analyze survival and time to fatigue. One-way ANOVA with LSD tests were used to identify differences among the salt-control, salt-knockdown and salt-knockdown+HSD flies. Data are represented as means±s.e.m. *P<0.05; **P<0.01.
Fig. 6.
Fig. 6.
The effect of dFOXO overexpression on salt tolerance of HSD flies. (A) Time to fatigue of 1-week-old flies. (B) Time to fatigue of 3-week-old flies. (C) Time to fatigue of 5-week-old flies. (D) The climbing index changes with aging in salt-overexpression flies. (E) The climbing index. (F) The curves of survival. (G) The average lifespan. (H) The salt expression. (I) The dFOXO expression. (J) The SOD activity level. (K) The MDA level. Using a non-parametric followed by a log-rank test for analyze survival and time to fatigue. Two-way ANOVA was used to identify differences among the four groups. Data are represented as means±s.e.m. *P<0.05; **P<0.01; **P<0.001.
Fig. 7.
Fig. 7.
The effect of dFOXO knockdown on salt tolerance of HSD flies. (A) Time to fatigue of 1-week-old flies. (B) Time to fatigue of 3-week-old flies. (C) Time to fatigue of 5-week-old flies. (D) The climbing index changes with aging in salt-overexpression flies. (E) The climbing index. (F) The curves of survival. (G) The average lifespan. (H) The salt expression. (I) The dFOXO expression. (J) The SOD activity level. (K) The MDA level. Using a non-parametric followed by a log-rank test for analyze survival and time to fatigue. One-way ANOVA with LSD tests were used to identify differences among the ‘dFOXO-control’, ‘dFOXO-knockdown’, and ‘dFOXO-knockdown+HSD’ flies. Data are represented as means±s.e.m. *P<0.05; **P<0.01.
Fig. 8.
Fig. 8.
An image of a vials’ rotation on an exercise device. (A) For young and adult flies vials were vertically loaded in exercise device, and rotated 180° to make flies constantly climb (just as Power Tower, overcoming weight = total body weight). (B) For aged flies vials were loaded in the exercise device, and their long axis is at an angle of 45° to the horizontal plane (overcoming weight = total body weight xsin45°). When aged flies climbed and reached the top of vial, the vial were rotated 90° to make flies constantly climb.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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