Habitual resistance exercise and endothelial ischemia-reperfusion injury in young adults

Resistance exercise involves muscular contractions that can render downstream tissues ischemic and may precondition the vasculature against ischemia-reperfusion (IR) injury, but it is unknown if habitual resistance exercise protects against IR injury in humans. We determined the magnitude and recovery from endothelial IR injury induced by forearm occlusion in 22 healthy young sedentary and resistance-trained adults. After IR injury, brachial artery flow-mediated dilation (FMD) significantly decreased by 36% in sedentary, but not resistance-trained subjects and fully recovered within 45 min. Though HDL-cholesterol, handgrip strength and systolic blood pressure were significantly associated with FMD 15 min after IR injury, the change in FMD from before to 15 min after IR injury was not associated with any subject characteristics. These results are consistent with the notion that habitual resistance exercise may protect against endothelial IR injury in young adults, presumably through effects analogous to ischemic preconditioning.