Agradecimentos: The authors thank Prof. Dr. Larry W. Fischer (U.S. National Institutes of Health and Okayama University Graduate Schoolof Medicine, Dentistry and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Okayama, Japan) for providing the antibodies and José Campanholi Netoand Patty Karina dos Santos (both from Federal University of São Carlos) for technical assistance. This work was supported by São Paulo Research Foundation (FAPESP) Grants 2010/19390-5, 2011/11229-3, and 2013/00798-2; by Federal District Research Support Foundation (FAPDF) Grant 193.000.653/2015; and by the Brazilian National Council for Scientific and Technological Development (CNPq) Grant 445069/2014-7. The authors declare no conflicts of interest Ver menos

In elderly persons, weak tendons contribute to functional limitations, injuries, and disability, but re‐sistance training can attenuate this age‐related decline. We evaluated the effects of resistance training on the extracellular matrix (ECM) of the calcaneal tendon (CT) in young and old rats and its effect on tendon remodeling. Wistar rats aged 3 mo (young, n = 30) and 20 mo (old, n = 30) were divided into 4 groups: young sedentary, young trained, old sedentary (OS), and old trained (OT). The training sessions were conducted over a 12‐wk period. Aging in sedentary rats showed down‐regulation in key genes that regulated ECM remodeling. Moreover, the OS group showed a calcification focus in the distal region of the CT, with reduced blood vessel volume density. In contrast, resistance training was effective in up‐regulating connective tissue growth factor, VEGF, and decorin gene expression in old rats. Resistance training also increased proteoglycan content in young and old rats in special small leucine‐rich proteoglycans and blood vessels and prevented calcification in OT rats. These findings confirm that resistance training is a potential mechanism in the prevention of aging‐related loss in ECM and that it attenuates the detrimental effects of aging in tendons, such as ruptures and tendinopathies.—Marqueti, R. C., Durigan, J. L. Q., Oliveira, A. J. S., Mekaro, M. S., Guzzoni, V., Aro, A. A., Pimentel, E. R., Selistre‐de‐Araujo, H. S. Effects of aging and resistance training in rat tendon remodeling Ver menos