Abstract
The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 8 weeks of hypoxic
exposition and physical training on healthy mice femur outcomes analyzed through
conventional statistic and complex networks. The mice were divided into four
groups, subjected to physical training (T; 40 min per day at 80% of critical
velocity intensity) or not (N), exposed to hypoxic environment (“Living
High-Training Low” model – LHTL; 18 h per day, FIO2=19.5%; Hyp) or
not (Nor). The complex network analysis performed interactions among parameters
using values of critical “r” of 0.5 by Pearson correlations to edges
construction, with Fruchterman-Reingold layout adopted for graph visualization.
Pondered Degree, Betweenness, and Eigenvector metrics were chosen as centrality
metrics. Two-way ANOVA, t-test and Pearson correlation were used with P<0.05.
Femur phosphorus of T-Hyp was higher than all other groups (P<0.05) and
correlated with bone density (r=0.65; P=0.042), bone mineral density (r=0.67;
P=0.034) and% of mineral material (r=0.66, P=0.038). Overall, the complex
network demonstrated improvements in bone volume, % of mineral material, bone
density, and bone mineral density for T-Hyp over other groups. Association of
physical training and hypoxia improved bone quality for healthy mice.
Keywords
hypoxic environment - bone mineral density - critical velocity - physical training - animal model - femur
