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1 Medicine, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: dwray{at}ucsd.edu.
We sought to identify the relationship between shear stimuli and flow-mediated vasodilation, and to determine whether small muscle mass exercise training could provoke limb-specific improvements in endothelial function in older subjects. In five young (22 ± 1 yrs) and six old (71 ± 2 yrs) subjects, ultrasound Doppler measurements were taken in the arm (brachial artery) and leg (deep and superficial femoral arteries) following suprasystolic cuff occlusion with and without ischemic exercise to evaluate flow-mediated dilation (FMD) in both limbs. Older subjects were re-evaluated after six weeks of single leg knee-extensor exercise training. Before training, a significant FMD was observed in the arm of young (3 ± 1 %), but not old (1 ± 1 %) subjects, while a significant leg FMD was observed in both groups (5 ± 1 % old vs. 3 ± 1% young). However, arm vasodilation was similar between young and old when normalized for shear rate, and cuff occlusion with superimposed handgrip exercise provoked additional shear which proportionately improved the FMD response in both groups. Exercise training significantly improved arm FMD (5 ± 1 %), while leg FMD was unchanged. However, ischemic handgrip exercise did not provoke additional arm vasodilation after training, which may indicate an age-related limit to shear-induced vasodilation. Together, these data demonstrate that vascular reactivity is dependant on limb and degree of shear stimuli, challenging the convention of diminished endothelial function typically associated with age. Likewise, exercise training improved arm vasodilation, indicating some preservation of vascular plasticity with age.
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