Exercise training-induced coronary vascular adaptation

Aerobic exercise training induces an increase in coronary vascular transport capacity. This increased transport capacity is the result of increases in both blood flow capacity and capillary exchange capacity. These functional changes are the result of two major types of adaptive responses, structural vascular adaptation and altered control of vascular resistance. Structural vascular adaptation occurs in response to exercise training in at least two forms, increases in the cross-sectional area of the proximal coronary arteries and angiogenesis. Angiogenesis has been demonstrated in that training causes moderate cardiac hypertrophy while maintaining or increasing capillary density and increasing arteriolar density. Training-induced changes in coronary vascular control have been shown to include altered coronary responses to vasoactive substances, changes in endothelium-mediated vasoregulation, and alterations in the cellular-molecular control of intracellular free Ca2+ in both endothelial and vascular smooth muscle cells isolated from coronary arteries of exercise-trained animals. The signal or signals for these adaptive responses remain unknown. The hypothesis that the adaptive strategy entails maintenance of normal shear stress in coronary arterial vessels is discussed. We propose that as a result of training-induced structural vascular adaptations and alterations in the control of vascular resistance, shear stress throughout the coronary vasculature is returned to the level present in sedentary animals. The signal for adaptation may be peak shear stress during exercise and/or average shear stress over a 24-h period of time.