Heart disease is currently the leading cause of mortality in the US. It is characterized by many specific structural, functional, metabolic, and circulatory changes that ultimately lead to increased morbidity (i.e. quality of life) and mortality (i.e. death). Clinical management of heart disease primarily includes pharmacological treatments, and various non-pharmacological interventions including exercise. Investigations in humans have determined that exercise helps to both prevent heart disease, as well as to reduce morbidity and mortality in patients who already have established heart disease.

SU Biology faculty, Stephen Luckey, is interested in the understanding how exercise beneficially impacts both the healthy and diseased heart. One project in his lab specifically investigates the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the positive effect of exercise on diseased hearts in young and aged mice. Elucidating these mechanisms is a necessary step in identifying targets that could be used to develop drug treatments. The overarching goal of this line of research is the development of pharmacological interventions that replicate the effects of exercise in the context of heart disease.

In November, Dr. Luckey, presented his lab’s research in the Department of Biology at Regis University in a seminar titled, “The Good, the Bad, and the Hypertrophic.” Here he discussed the mouse model his lab developed to investigate the impact of exercise prior to and during cardiac disease in young and old mice. Dr. Luckey also discussed how his research evaluates the impact of biological sex on the effects of exercise in the context of heart disease—until recently, the influence of biological sex in cardiac physiology and disease has been under-appreciated and most scientific investigations in humans and animals have been conducted exclusively in males.

Also in November, a post-bac student Kayla Meredith, working with Dr. Luckey, presented her work in a poster format at the 30th Murdock College Science Research Conference. Kayla was awarded the 2021 Murdock Poster Prize for Developmental Biology-Physiology for her research, “Run For Your Life: A Meta-Analysis of the Effects of Exercise Intensity on Cardiovascular Outcomes in a Rat Model of Hypertension.” Preliminary findings of Kayla’s research indicate that low-intensity and moderate-intensity exercise can have a positive impact on a rat model of hypertension. Although this analysis evaluated data in an animal model, it is believed that these data are translatable to humans and suggest that individuals with hypertension can benefit from a low-intensity exercise program.