Regular exercise-induced increased number and activity of circulating endothelial progenitor cells attenuates age-related decline in arterial elasticity in healthy men

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Abstract

Background

Deficiency in number and activity of circulating EPCs is associated with reduced arterial elasticity in humans with advancing aging. Physical exercise can increase the number and activity of circulating EPCs in humans. Here we investigated whether regular exercise-induced enhanced circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) improves age-related decline in arterial elasticity in healthy men.

Methods

In a cross-sectional study, the number and activity of circulating EPCs as well as brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) of young and older sedentary or endurance-trained healthy men were studied. Then we observed the effect of regular exercise on circulating EPCs and baPWV of 10 older and 10 young sedentary healthy men.

Results

In both sedentary and endurance-trained men, the number and activity of circulating EPCs were significantly low in older men compared with young men, which was paralleled to increased baPWV. After three months of regular exercise, the number and activity of circulating EPCs increased, and the baPWV of 10 older and 10 young sedentary healthy men decreased. However, the increased number and activity of circulating EPCs and decreased baPWV of older sedentary healthy men were higher. There was a close correlation between circulating EPCs and baPWV. Multivariate analysis identified proliferative activity of circulating EPCs as an independent predictor of baPWV.

Conclusions

The present study demonstrates for the first time that regular physical exercise-induced enhanced circulating EPCs attenuates age-related decline in arterial elasticity in healthy men. These findings provide novel insights into the protective effects of exercise on age-related vascular injury.

Introduction

Aging is associated with abnormalities in arterial structure and function and the increased rate of atherosclerotic vascular diseases [1], [2], [3]. The fall in arterial elasticity is a hallmark of aging that precedes apparently obstructive atherosclerosis and cardiovascular events. It is generally accepted that decreased arterial elasticity is accompanied by endothelial dysfunction in humans with aging [4], [5], [6], [7]. Studies demonstrate that circulating endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) derived from the bone marrow contribute to the maintenance of normal vascular homeostasis [8], [9], [10]. Our recent study and previous investigation showed that in subjects with advancing aging deficiency in number and activity of circulating EPCs is involved in diminished arterial elasticity and endothelial dysfunction [11]. These investigations indicate that the decrease in number and activity of circulating EPCs may partially be responsible for age-related decline in arterial elasticity.

Physical exercise is an important method to improve vascular function in normal subjects, which promotes cardiovascular health and prevents vascular diseases [12], [13]. It was reported that regular physical activity can limit the age-related decline in arterial elasticity in healthy subjects [14], [15]. However, the exact mechanism underlying this beneficial effect of regular exercise on arterial elasticity is not completely clear. Recently, accumulating evidence indicates that physical exercise can enhance the number and activity of circulating EPCs in both healthy subjects and patients with coronary heart disease [16], [17], [18], [19], [20], [21]. Hoetzer et al. reported that regular aerobic-endurance exercise can increased both EPC colony-forming units and migratory activity in previously sedentary middle-aged and older men [22], indicating that increased number and activity of circulating EPCs may be a novel therapeutic strategy to prevent age-related vascular abnormalities. However, until now there are no available data to investigate whether regular exercise-induced increased number and activity of circulating EPCs is associated with amelioration of age-related decline in arterial elasticity in healthy men. We hypothesized that physical exercise-induced increased number and activity of circulating EPCs might attenuate the age-related decline in arterial elasticity in healthy subjects. To address this assumption, the present study was designed to evaluate change in number and activity of circulating EPCs as well as brachial ankle pulse wave velocity (baPWV) in both young and older men with sedentary and endurance-trained conditions, and investigate the effect of regular physical exercise on circulating EPCs and baPWV in young and older sedentary men.

Section snippets

Study protocol

In the cross-sectional study, the experiment protocol was referred to the previous report with slight modification [23]. Forty healthy men from our university volunteered for the present study. Subjects were classified into 1 of 4 groups based on their age and habitual exercise status: “young” (21 to 33 years old) and “older” (59 to 72 years old) and “sedentary” (no regular exercise) and “endurance-trained” (regular aerobic exercise ≥ 4 times/wk, ≥ 30 min/session). Young and older endurance-trained

Effect of exercise on the age-related decline in arterial elasticity

As shown in Table 1, HR, LDL-C and TC in sedentary men were larger than those in endurance-trained men (P < 0.05), and HDL in young sedentary men was lower than that in young endurance-trained men (P < 0.05). However, there was no significant difference in other clinical characteristics between sedentary and endurance-trained men (P > 0.05). Fig. 1 showed that baPWV increased with age in both sedentary and endurance-trained men (P < 0.05), but in sedentary men (18%) was slightly larger than in

Discussion

The major findings of this study are that the age-related increase in baPWV is smaller in endurance-trained men than that in sedentary men. Similarly, the age-related deficiency in the number and activity of circulating EPCs is lower in endurance-trained men than that in sedentary men. There is a close correlation between the circulating EPCs and baPWV. Regular physical exercise can significantly increase the number and activity of circulating EPCs of sedentary healthy and decrease their baPWV.

Conclusion

In summary, the present study for the first time demonstrates that regular physical exercise-induced increased number and activity of circulating EPCs attenuates age-related decline in arterial elasticity. These findings further support the notion that physical exercise can lower the cardiovascular risks and contribute to prevention of vascular diseases.

Conflict of interest

There are no conflicts of interest.

Acknowledgments

This study was financially supported by the grants from National Natural Scientific Foundation of China (u0732002, 30973535, 30770895, 30800215, and 81170131), 973 program (2012CB517802) of China, the Ph.D. Programs Foundation of Ministry of Education of China (20090171110061), and Guangdong Natural Science Foundation (No: 8451008901000793). The authors of this manuscript have certified that they comply with the Principles of Ethical Publishing in the International Journal of Cardiology.

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    Zhen Yang and Wen-Hao Xia contribute equally to this work.

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