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(Hypertension. 2003;41:1219.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.

Scientific Contributions

Baroreflex Buffering in Sedentary and Endurance Exercise–Trained Healthy Men

Demetra D. Christou; Pamela Parker Jones; Douglas R. Seals

From the Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology, University of Colorado (D.D.C., P.P.J., D.R.S.), Boulder, Colo; and the Department of Medicine, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center (D.R.S.), Denver, Colo.

Correspondence to Demetra Christou, PhD, Department of Kinesiology and Applied Physiology, University of Colorado at Boulder, UCB 354, Boulder, CO, 80309. E-mail christou{at}colorado.edu

Baroreflex buffering plays an important role in arterial blood pressure control. Previous reports suggest that baroreflex sensitivity may be altered in endurance exercise–trained compared with untrained subjects. It is unknown, however, if in vivo baroreflex buffering is altered in the endurance exercise–trained state in humans. Baroreflex buffering was determined in 36 healthy normotensive men (18 endurance exercise–trained, 41±5 [SEM] years; 18 untrained, 41±4 years) by measuring the potentiation of the systolic blood pressure responses to a phenylephrine bolus and to incremental phenylephrine infusion during compared with before ganglionic blockade with trimethaphan. The exercise-trained men had a lower resting heart rate and higher maximal oxygen consumption and heart rate variability than the sedentary control subjects (all P=0.01). Mean levels and variability of blood pressure, cardiovagal baroreflex sensitivity (change in heart rate/change in systolic blood pressure), and basal muscle sympathetic nerve activity were not different in the two groups. The systolic blood pressure responses to phenylephrine were not different in the endurance-trained and untrained men before or during ganglionic blockade (P>0.6). Measures of baroreflex buffering with the use of a phenylephrine bolus (3.9±0.8 versus 4.0±0.7, trained versus untrained, P=0.85) and incremental infusion (2.8±0.4 versus 2.5±0.6, P=0.67) were similar in the two groups. Baroreflex buffering does not differ in endurance exercise–trained compared with untrained healthy men. These results support the concept that habitual vigorous endurance exercise does not modulate in vivo baroreflex buffering in healthy humans.

Key Words: arterial pressure • autonomic nervous system • baroreflex • exercise • phenylephrine

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