Abstract: Objective: The paper is to explore the effects of aerobics on proliferative capacity in endothelial progenitor cells from bone marrow of old male rats. Method: 12 old male Sprague-Dawley rats are randomly and averagely divided into 2 groups,the control group and the aerobics group. The aerobic exercise mode is established by using the methods of lactic acid threshold and incremental treadmill exercise. Mononuclear cells from bone marrow are obtained by density gradient centrifugation 12 hours after the scheme has ended up. The cells are suspended in conditioned medium EGM-2 for culturing in vitro. Their phenotypes are confirmed by uptake of acetylated LDL and binding of fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled Ulex europaeus agglutinin 1 (UEA-1) lectin. Inverted microscope observation is adopted to understand the morphological changes of endothelial progenitor cells and to calculate cells count and colony forming efficiency,so that the proliferation situation of endothelial progenitor cells is obtained. Results: Adherent cells increase more obviously than group control both at 48h and day 7(P＜0.01). The number of adherent cells and colony forming efficiency in aerobics group is more than that in the control groups(P＜0.01). Conclusion: Proliferative capacity of endothelial progenitor cells from bone marrow in old male rats can be developed by aerobic exercise.

Key words: aerobic exerciseendothelial progenitor cellsbone marrow, cell culture, proliferation