Does lower limb cycle training improve upper limb vascular function via shear stress in healthy young humans?
Lower limb cycle training induces a transient increase in upper limb vascular function in healthy young humans, which is at least partly mediated via shear stress.
Lower limb exercise increases upper limb conduit artery blood flow and shear stress, and leg exercise training can enhance upper limb vascular function. We therefore examined the contribution of shear stress to changes in vascular function in the nonexercising upper limbs in response to lower limb cycling exercise training. Initially, five male subjects underwent bilateral brachial artery duplex ultrasound to measure blood flow and shear responses to 30-min cycling exercise at 80% of maximal heart rate. Responses in one forearm were significantly (P 0.05) across the 8-wk intervention period. Our data suggest that lower limb cycle training induces a transient increase in upper limb vascular function in healthy young humans, which is, at least partly, mediated via shear stress.
Birk et al. (Fri,) studied this question.