Endothelial function in highly endurance-trained and sedentary, healthy young women.
Endothelial function is reduced by age, chronic heart failure, coronary artery disease, hypertension or type 2 diabetes, and it is shown that aerobic exercise may reverse this trend. The effect of a high aerobic training status on endothelial function in young, healthy subjects is however less clear. The present study was designed to determine whether endothelial function is improved in highly endurance-trained young women compared to sedentary, healthy controls. Brachial artery diameter was measured in 16 endurance-trained (age: 23.7 +/- 2.5 years, maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max): 60.6 +/- 4.5 ml/kg per min) and 14 sedentary females (age: 23.7 +/- 2.1 years, VO2max: 40.5 +/- 5.6 ml/kg per min) at rest, during flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and after sublingual glycerol trinitrate administration, using high-resolution ultrasound. FMD did not differ between the endurance-trained and the sedentary females (14.8% vs 16.4%, p = NS), despite a substantial difference in VO2max of 50% (p < 0.001). The endurance-trained group possessed however, a 9% larger resting brachial artery diameter when adjusted for body surface area. The results of the present study suggest that endothelial function is well preserved in young, healthy women, and that a high aerobic training status due to long term aerobic training does not improve the dilating capacity any further.
Moe
Ingvild T
IT
Department of Circulation and Medical Imaging, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway.
Hoven
Heidi
H
Hetland
Eva V
EV
Rognmo
Oivind
O
Slørdahl
Stig A
SA
D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D000886:Anthropometry; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000473:pathology / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D010806:Physical Education and Training; D010807:Physical Endurance / Q000502:physiology*; D010809:Physical Fitness / Q000502:physiology; D011336:Probability; D012016:Reference Values; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013177:Sports; D014664:Vasodilation / Q000502:physiology*