Abstract
Vascular function and arterial stiffness are important markers of cardiovascular health and cardiovascular co-morbidity. Transitional phases of hypoemia and hypermia, with consequent fluctuations in shear rate, occuring during repetitive passive stretching adminstration (passive stretching training) may constitute an effective stimulus to induce an amelioration in vascular function, arterial stiffness and vascular remodelling by improving central and local blood flow control mechanisms. Vascular function, arterial stiffness and vascular remodelling were evaluated before and after 12weeks of passive stretching training and after 6weeks from training cessation, in the femoral, popliteal (treated with stretching), and brachial arteries (untreated) of both sides. After passive stretching training, vascular function and arterial remodelling improved, and arterial stiffness decreased in all the arteries, suggesting modifications of both central and local blood flow control mechanisms. Passive stretching-induced improvements related to central mechanisms seemed to have a short duration, as they returned to pre-training baseline within 6weeks from training cessation, whereas those more related to a local mechanism persisted in the follow-up. Acute passive stretching (PS) effects on blood flow ( ), shear rate ( ), and vascular function in the feeding arteries of the stretched muscle have been extensively investigated; however, few data are available on vascular adjustments induced by long-term PS training. We investigated the effects of PS training on vascular function and stiffness of the involved (femoral and popliteal) and uninvolved (brachial) arteries. Our hypothesis was that PS-induced changes in and would improve central and local mechanisms of control. Thirty-nine participants were randomly assigned to bilateral PS (n=14), monolateral PS (n=13) or no PS training (n=12). Vascular function was measured before and after 12weeks of knee extensor and plantar flexor muscles' PS training by single passive limb movement and flow-mediated dilatation (FMD). Central (carotid-femoral artery PWV, PWVCF ) and peripheral (carotid-radial artery PWV, PWVCR ) arterial stiffness was measured by pulse-wave velocity (PWV), together with systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressure. After PS training, increases of 30%, 25% and 8% (P<0.05) in femoral Δ , popliteal and brachial artery FMD%, respectively, occurred in both PS training groups. A decrease in PWVCF , PWVCR , SBP and DBP (-25%, -17%, -4% and -8%, respectively; P<0.05) was noted. No changes occurred in controls. Vascular function improved and arterial stiffness reduced in the arteries involved and uninvolved with PS training, suggesting modifications in both central and local control mechanisms. PS-induced improvements had a short duration in some of vascular function parameters, as they returned to baseline within 6weeks of PS training cessation.
Highlights
Vascular function (Hotta et al 2013; Nishiwaki et al 2015), the ability of an artery to dilate and constrict, is an important marker of cardiovascular health and cardiovascular co-morbidity (Qureshi et al 2007)
Systemic changes, in particular in the vessels not directly involved in passive stretching (PS) training, seemed to have a shorter duration in comparison to local adaptations, which are maintained in the arteries directly involved in PS training even after 6 weeks from its cessation
The present findings provide novel evidence for the impact of PS training on vascular function, as assessed by flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) (Harris et al 2010) and by the more recent single passive limb movement (sPLM) methodology (Venturelli et al 2017b)
Summary
Vascular function (Hotta et al 2013; Nishiwaki et al 2015), the ability of an artery to dilate and constrict, is an important marker of cardiovascular health and cardiovascular co-morbidity (Qureshi et al 2007). Recent studies have reported that acute passive static stretching (PS), a well-established practice in rehabilitation and sport to increase joint range of motion (ROM) (Esposito et al 2011; Kay & Blazevich, 2012; Behm et al 2015), may have a positive effect on vascular function, arterial stiffness and arterial structure (Cortez-Cooper et al 2008; Kato et al 2017; Shinno et al 2017). The indirect approach used in the previous studies to assess vascular function changes after PS training did not permit evaluation of possible PS training-induced mechanical remodulations of the arterial wall in the vessels directly involved in PS training. A plausible explanation for these phenomena involves the shear rate (Y ), which is the frictional or drag force acting on the vessel’s inner lumen that can trigger a chain of reactions, leading to higher endothelial NO synthase activity
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