Differential Response to Exercise in African Americans with High Levels of Inflammation.

PURPOSE: Systemic inflammation, measured by C-reactive protein (CRP), is an important risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) and mortality. We investigated whether aerobic exercise training (AEXT) affects African Americans with high inflammation (HI) the same way it does African Americans with low inflammation (LI) in terms of CVD risk factors. METHODS: 23 African Americans with CRP levels <3 mg/L (LI) and 14 African Americans with CRP ≥3 mg/L (HI) underwent six months of AEXT. Participants were sedentary, non-diabetic, non-smoking, with clinical blood pressure <160/100 mm Hg, were non-hyperlipidemic, had no signs of cardiovascular, renal, or pulmonary disease, and were not on medication. Measures included CD62E+ endothelial microparticles (EMPs), a measure of early stage endothelial dysfunction, as well as lipid and glucose profile, aerobic fitness, body composition, and blood pressure. RESULTS: The LI group improved aerobic fitness by 10%, body mass index by 3%, and plasma triglycerides by 20%, with no change being observed in HI group for these variables. The HI group improved fasting plasma glucose levels by 10%, with no change occurring in the LI group. Both groups improved CD62E+ EMPs by 38% and 59% for the LI and HI group, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: A standard AEXT intervention differentially affected CVD risk factors among African Americans with high and low inflammation. This may indicate that, in African Americans with high inflammation, AEXT alone may not be enough to reap the same benefits as their low-inflammation peers in terms of CVD risk modification.

Shear stress-induced mitochondrial biogenesis decreases the release of microparticles from endothelial cells.

The concept of enhancing structural integrity of mitochondria has emerged as a novel therapeutic option for cardiovascular disease. Flow-induced increase in laminar shear stress is a potent physiological stimulant associated with exercise, which exerts atheroprotective effects in the vasculature. However, the effect of laminar shear stress on mitochondrial remodeling within the vascular endothelium and its related functional consequences remain largely unknown. Using in vitro and in vivo complementary studies, here, we report that aerobic exercise alleviates the release of endothelial microparticles in prehypertensive individuals and that these salutary effects are, in part, mediated by shear stress-induced mitochondrial biogenesis. Circulating levels of total (CD31(+)/CD42a(-)) and activated (CD62E(+)) microparticles released by endothelial cells were significantly decreased (∼40% for both) after a 6-mo supervised aerobic exercise training program in individuals with prehypertension. In cultured human endothelial cells, laminar shear stress reduced the release of endothelial microparticles, which was accompanied by an increase in mitochondrial biogenesis through a sirtuin 1 (SIRT1)-dependent mechanism. Resveratrol, a SIRT1 activator, treatment showed similar effects. SIRT1 knockdown using small-interfering RNA completely abolished the protective effect of shear stress. Disruption of mitochondrial integrity by either antimycin A or peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ coactivator-1α small-interfering RNA significantly increased the number of total, and activated, released endothelial microparticles, and shear stress restored these back to basal levels. Collectively, these data demonstrate a critical role of endothelial mitochondrial integrity in preserving endothelial homeostasis. Moreover, prolonged laminar shear stress, which is systemically elevated during aerobic exercise in the vessel wall, mitigates endothelial dysfunction by promoting mitochondrial biogenesis.

Effect of Interleukin-10 and Laminar Shear Stress on Endothelial Nitric Oxide Synthase and Nitric Oxide in African American Human Umbilical Vein Endothelial Cells.

BACKGROUND: African Americans have a predisposition to heightened systemic inflammation and a high prevalence of hypertension. OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of interleukin-10 (IL-10) and laminar shear stress (LSS) on African American endothelial cells by measuring total endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) protein expression and its phosphorylated form (p-eNOS) at Serine 1177, and nitric oxide (NO) levels, in response to IL-10 incubation and high physiological levels of LSS, used as an in vitro mimetic for aerobic exercise training (AEXT). DESIGN: Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) from an African American donor were cultured. The experimental conditions included Static, Static with IL-10 Incubation, LSS at 20 dynes/cm², and LSS at 20 dynes/cm² with IL-10 Incubation. Western blotting was used to measure eNOS and p-eNOS protein expression in the cells. A modified Griess assay was used to measure NO metabolites in the cell culture media. RESULTS: There were significant increases in p-eNOS, eNOS, and NO in the LSS at 20 dynes/cm² and LSS at 20 dynes/cm² with IL-10 Incubation experimental conditions when compared to the Static experimental condition. There were no other statistically significant differences demonstrating that IL-10 did not have an additive effect on eNOS activity in our study. CONCLUSION: The significant increases in p-eNOS, eNOS, and NO as a result of LSS in African American HUVECs suggest that AEXT may be a viable, nonpharmacologic method to improve vascular inflammation status and vasodilation, and thereby contribute to hypertension reduction in the African American population.

Adherence to Exercise Prescription and Improvements in the Clinical and Vascular Health of African Americans.

Improvements in indices of vascular health and endothelial function have been inversely associated with hypertension, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (e.g., myocardial infarction, stroke, and heart failure), renal failure, and mortality. Aerobic exercise training (AEXT) has been positively associated with improvements in clinical health values, as well as vascular health biomarkers, and endothelial function. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether measures of exercise adherence were related to clinical outcome measures and indices of vascular health subsequent to a 6-month AEXT intervention in a middle-to-older aged African American cohort. Following dietary stabilization, sedentary, apparently healthy, African American adults (40 - 71 y/o) underwent baseline testing including blood pressure, flow-mediated dilation (FMD) studies, fasting blood sampling, and graded exercise testing. Upon completion of a supervised 6-month AEXT intervention, participants repeated all baseline tests. Exercise adherence was measured three ways: exercise percentage, exercise volume, and exercise score. There were no significant correlations between the changes in the vascular health biomarkers of the participants and any of the adherence measures. In addition, there were no significant correlations between any of the adherence measures and the clinical values of the participants that had been significantly changed pre-post-AEXT. Participants improved their clinical and vascular health and decreased risk factors for hypertension and cardiovascular disease regardless of their level of adherence to AEXT. Future studies should continue to accurately quantify adherence in order to assess the exercise dose for improvements in vascular and clinical health.

The effects of weight loss and salt reduction on visit-to-visit blood pressure variability: results from a multicenter randomized controlled trial.

OBJECTIVES: As evidence suggests visit-to-visit variability (VVV) of blood pressure (BP) is associated with cardiovascular events and mortality, there is increasing interest in identifying interventions that reduce VVV of BP. We investigated the effects of weight loss and sodium reduction, alone or in combination, on VVV of BP in participants enrolled in phase II of the Trials of Hypertension Prevention. METHODS: BP readings were taken at 6-month intervals for 36 months in 1820 participants with high-normal DBP who were randomized to weight loss, sodium reduction, combination (weight loss and sodium reduction), or usual care groups. VVV of BP was defined as the SD of BP across six follow-up visits. RESULTS: VVV of SBP was not significantly different between participants randomized to the weight loss (7.2 ±â€Š3.1  mmHg), sodium reduction (7.1 ±â€Š3.0  mmHg), or combined (6.9 ±â€Š2.9  mmHg) intervention groups vs. the usual care group (6.9 ±â€Š2.9  mmHg). In a fully adjusted model, no difference (0.0 ±â€Š0.2  mmHg) in VVV of SBP was present between individuals who successfully maintained their weight loss vs. individuals who did not lose weight during follow-up (P = 0.93). Also, those who maintained a reduced sodium intake throughout follow-up did not have lower VVV of SBP compared to those who did not reduce their sodium intake (0.1 ±â€Š0.3  mmHg; P = 0.77). Results were similar for VVV of DBP. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that weight loss and sodium reduction may not be effective interventions for lowering VVV of BP in individuals with high-normal DBP.

Chronic aerobic exercise improves blood pressure dipping status in African American nondippers.

OBJECTIVE: The effects of exercise training on nocturnal blood pressure (BP) dipping status remain unclear. African Americans have the highest prevalence of nondippers compared with other racial/ethnic populations. In this 6-month study we tested the hypothesis that long-term aerobic exercise training would increase the levels of nocturnal BP dipping in African American nondippers. METHODS AND RESULTS: We recruited African Americans who were nondiabetic, nonsmoking, and free from cardiovascular and renal disease. For this analysis, only African Americans with a nondipping profile, defined as those with the absence of a nocturnal decline in systolic or diastolic BP (<10% of daytime values), which was determined by ambulatory BP monitoring, were chosen. A pre-post design was used, with baseline and final evaluation including office blood pressure measurement, 24-h ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, fasted blood sampling, and graded exercise testing. Participants engaged in 6 months of supervised aerobic exercise training (AEXT). Following the AEXT intervention, there were significant increases in systolic BP dipping (baseline: 5.8±3.9% vs. final: 9.4±6.1%, P=0.0055) and pulse pressure dipping (baseline: -3.1±6.6% vs. final: 5.0±12.8%, P=0.0109). Of the 18 participants with a nondipping profile at baseline, eight were nonclassified as nondippers after the AEXT intervention. There were no significant changes in office systolic BP/diastolic BP values following the AEXT intervention. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the nondipping pattern of ambulatory BP can be improved by chronic AEXT in African American nondippers, regardless of a change in the 24-h average BP. This finding may be clinically important because of the target organ implication of nondipping nocturnal BP.

A standardized exercise intervention differentially affects premenopausal and postmenopausal African-American women.

OBJECTIVE: African-American women represent an understudied population in menopause research yet face greater postmenopausal challenges associated with mortality than their white peers. We investigated the effects of a mild-intensity aerobic exercise training program on markers of mortality risk in both premenopausal and postmenopausal African-American women. METHODS: Sixteen premenopausal women and 19 postmenopausal women underwent 6 months of mild-intensity aerobic exercise training. Measurements included markers of blood lipid and glucose profile, inflammation, kidney function, vascular health, and aerobic fitness before and after the exercise intervention. RESULTS: Before the exercise intervention, the premenopausal and postmenopausal groups only differed in age, low-density lipoprotein, and total cholesterol levels, with the latter two being higher in the postmenopausal group. Both triglycerides and markers of early-stage endothelial dysfunction (CD62E endothelial microparticles) improved in both groups with aerobic exercise training. Aerobic fitness, glomerular filtration rate, body mass index, plasma glucose levels, and markers of late-stage endothelial dysfunction (CD31/CD42b endothelial microparticles) only improved in the premenopausal group. CONCLUSIONS: Mild-intensity aerobic exercise training succeeds in improving some markers of cardiovascular disease and mortality in postmenopausal women. Higher levels of exercise intensity or perhaps additional interventions may need to be considered to further decrease mortality risk in this population.

Effects of moderate aerobic exercise training on vascular health and blood pressure in African Americans.

As healthcare progresses toward individualized medicine, understanding how different racial groups respond to lifestyle interventions is valuable. It is established that African Americans have disproportionate levels of cardiovascular disease and impaired vascular health, and clinical practice guidelines suggest lifestyle interventions as the first line of treatment. Recently, the authors reported that 6 months of aerobic exercise improved inflammatory markers, flow-mediated dilation (FMD), and levels of circulating endothelial microparticles (EMPs) in African American adults. This study is a subgroup analysis of the aerobic exercise-induced changes in vascular health and blood pressure (BP) measures, including carotid artery intima-media thickness (IMT), nitroglycerin-mediated dilation (NMD), ambulatory BP, and office BP. Sedentary African American adults (53.4±6.2 years; 21 women and 5 men) showed improved vascular health but no change in BP. Carotid artery IMT decreased 6.4%, plasma nitric oxide levels increased 76.6%, plasma EMP levels decreased, percentage of FMD increased 59.6%, and FMD/NMD ratio increased 36.2% (P<.05 for all). Six months of aerobic exercise training is sufficient to elicit improvements in vascular structure and function in African Americans, even without improvements in BP measures or NMD (ie, smooth muscle function). To our knowledge, this is the first study to report such findings in African Americans.

Endothelial activation microparticles and inflammation status improve with exercise training in african americans.

African Americans have the highest prevalence of hypertension in the world which may emanate from their predisposition to heightened endothelial inflammation. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of a 6-month aerobic exercise training (AEXT) intervention on the inflammatory biomarkers interleukin-10 (IL-10), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and endothelial microparticle (EMP) CD62E+ and endothelial function assessed by flow-mediated dilation (FMD) in African Americans. A secondary purpose was to evaluate whether changes in IL-10, IL-6, or CD62E+ EMPs predicted the change in FMD following the 6-month AEXT intervention. A pre-post design was employed with baseline evaluation including office blood pressure, FMD, fasting blood sampling, and graded exercise testing. Participants engaged in 6 months of AEXT. Following the AEXT intervention, all baseline tests were repeated. FMD significantly increased, CD62E+ EMPs and IL-6 significantly decreased, and IL-10 increased but not significantly following AEXT. Changes in inflammatory biomarkers did not significantly predict the change in FMD. The change in VO2 max significantly predicted the change in IL-10. Based on these results, AEXT may be a viable, nonpharmacological method to improve inflammation status and endothelial function and thereby contribute to risk reduction for cardiovascular disease in African Americans.