Abstract: TRAINING AND ENDOTHELIAL FUNCTION IN UPPER AND LOWER LIMBS

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) begins with damage to the endothelium, the inner lining of the blood vessels. Endothelial damage occurs as early as childhood and is associated with risk factors such as obesity, hypertension, diabetes, smoking, and dyslipidemia. Previous research has documented that exercise enhances endothelial function in individuals of all ages, but there is no consensus in the literature as to whether this improvement is seen systemically or is localized to the exercised limb. It is well known that endothelial function is not homogenous throughout the body, due to differences in limb blood pressure when standing, which can be as high as 65 mmHg. The purpose of this study was to evaluate endothelial function of the brachial and popliteal arteries of trained and sedentary men via flow-mediated dilation (FMD). FMD is assessed by measuring changes in arterial diameter in the reperfusion period following a 5-minute period of ischemia. We hypothesized that 1) trained men would have greater endothelial function in both the brachial and popliteal arteries in comparison to sedentary counterparts 2) the brachial artery would have better endothelial function than the popliteal artery only in sedentary men. Brachial and popliteal endothelial function will be similar in trained men due to an exercise training improvement in endothelial function of the leg in trained individuals