Experimental physiology
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Experimental physiology · Feb 2014
Exercise training and vascular cell phenotype in a swine model of familial hypercholesterolaemia: conduit arteries and veins.
What is the central question of this study? Does endurance exercise training cause anti-atherogenic effects on the endothelium in a swine model of familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH), and how are these effects distributed across veins, arteries and multiple vascular territories within each system? What is the main finding and its importance? Coronary artery endothelium-dependent vasomotor function was depressed in sedentary FH pigs compared with sedentary control animals, and exercise training did not change vasomotor function within FH. In systemic conduit arteries and veins, few effects of FH on endothelial cell protein expression were noted, including both pro- and anti-atherogenic changes. These findings suggest that exercise training does not produce a consistently improved endothelial cell phenotype in either coronary or systemic conduit vessels in this swine model of FH. ⋯ In contrast, only scattered effects of FH on EC phenotype were noted across the vasculature, which included both pro- and anti-atherogenic changes in EC protein expression (e.g. increased endothelial nitric oxide synthase in carotid artery ECs, decreased p67phox in brachial artery ECs, but decreased expression of the antioxidant protein SOD1 in thoracic vena cava; all P < 0.05). In thoracic vena cava ECs, this deficit was corrected by exercise training, while no other effects of exercise were observed in conduit vessel EC phenotype. Thus, while exercise training abrogated the adverse effect of hypercholesterolaemia on thoracic vena cava SOD1 expression, it appears that exercise training does not produce a consistently improved EC phenotype in either coronary or systemic conduit vessels in this FH swine model.