Role of Exercise in Vascular Function and Inflammatory Profile in Age-Related Obesity

What is it about?

Exercise is a nonpharmacological strategy able to decrease the development and incidence of risk factors for several health-threatening diseases. Nonetheless, its long-term effect on vascular function and inflammation in age-related obesity is still unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of regular, supervised exercise on inflammatory profile and vascular function in age-related obesity. We also hypothesized that vascular function and inflammatory profile would have been correlated in overweight and obese (OW&OB) individuals. Thirty normal weight (NW) and forty overweight and obese elderly regularly taking part in a structured, supervised exercise program were enrolled in the study and evaluated for vascular function and inflammatory profile. Although no differences between groups were found concerning performance and the weekly amount of physical activity, the OW&OB group compared with the NW group demonstrated higher systolic and diastolic blood pressure (+10%; +9%, respectively); lower vascular function (−36%, ); and higher levels of inflammatory profile. No correlations between vascular function and inflammation were found in OW&OB or NW. Although exercising regularly, overweight and obese elderly exhibited poorer vascular function and higher proinflammatory markers compared with the leaner group. These results support the idea that exercise alone cannot counteract the negative effect of adiposity on vascular function and inflammatory profile in elderly individuals and these two processes are not necessarily related.

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Why is it important?

Although significant differences were found for the measured variables between overweight and obese subjects compared with nonobese elderly individuals, the results of our study demonstrated that regular, supervised exercise without a caloric restriction diet is not a fully successful stimulus able to counteract the deleterious effect of age-related adiposity on vascular function and inflammatory profile.

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