Sex Hormones: A Big Player in the Spontaneous Activity of Female but Not Male Rats

Main Category: Sports Medicine / Fitness
Article Date: 08 Apr 2005 - 3:00 PDT

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As people age, sex hormones decline and so does exercise. Researchers found that testosterone replacement had no effect on spontaneous activity, whereas estrogen did.

Identifying gender differences and fctors affecting our activity could lead to a better understanding of an aging population. Next they will attempt to determine if the estrogen improved spontaneous activity through behavior, a local muscle-specific response or a combination.

Andrea M Foley1, Rebecca A Duckworth1,2, Marybeth Brown1,3. 1Physical Therapy, University of Missouri, Physical Therapy Dept., 2Biomedical Sciences, 3Center for Gender Physiology. Physiology 347.9.

Funding: NASA and National Institute of Aging.

The 35th Congress of the International Union of Physiological Sciences is in San Diego, March 31 - April 5, 2005. The Congress (http://www.iups2005.org) is organized by the six member societies of the U.S. National Committee of the IUPS, the American Physiological Society, the Society for Neuroscience, the Microcirculatory Society, the Society of General Physiologists, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and the Society for Integrative and Comparative Biology, under the auspices of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

The IUPS conference, held every four years, runs concurrently this year with Experimental Biology 2005 at the San Diego Convention Center.

Abstracts for all presentations may be accessed through a complete searchable online program at faseb.org/meetings/eb2005/call/default.htm covering both IUPS and Experimental Biology 2005, which is being held concurrently.

The American Physiological Society (APS), which is hosting IUPS, was founded in 1887 to foster basic and applied science, much of it relating to human health. The Bethesda, MD-based Society has more than 10,000 members and publishes nearly 4,000 articles every year in its 14 peer-reviewed journals. In May, APS received the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics and Engineering Mentoring (PAESMEM).

Contact: Mayer Resnick
mresnick@the-aps.org
301-332-4402 (cell)
619-525-6228 (Telephone)
301-634-7209 (office, outside IUPS dates)
The American Physiological Society
http://www.the-aps.org