Investigation of circulatory endothelial progenitor cells following acute exercise in young and middle-aged athletes

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to investigate the changes in the number of circulating endothelial progenitor cells following acute exercise in young and middle-aged sedentary and athletic individuals with and without hypertension. Method: A total of 120 people, including 8 groups and 15 people in each group, were planned to participate in the study. A total of 8 groups were formed from the volunteer participants: young and middle-aged, sedentary and sportsman, healthy and hypertensive. Participants were measured at rest, body composition, aerobic capacity determination, pulse, blood pressure and circulating EPH measurements, and the measurements of the individuals were repeated after the acute isometric handgrip exercise to be applied at 60 % of the maximum voluntary contraction. For the quantitative variables of the study determined by measurement, mean and standard deviation are shown as descriptive statistics, and for qualitative variables determined by counting, descriptive statistics are shown as numbers and percentages. In the study, Kruskal Wallis was used for comparison between groups and Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used for comparison between measurements. A value of 0.05 was accepted as the statistical significance level in the entire study. Results: It was determined that the resting VEGFR-2+ and CD34+VEGFR-2+ numbers were lower in young and middle-aged athletes than in sedentary individuals of the same age. While an increase in the response of VEGFR-2+ and CD34+VEGFR-2+ cells to anaerobic loading was observed in young healthy athletes, this response was not observed after aerobic loading. On the other hand, in middle-aged athlete hypertensive individuals, an increased response was observed in both cell groups to both anaerobic and aerobic loading. Conclusion: It was concluded that 60 % exercise intensity applied in hypertensive individuals increased the endothelial progenitor cell release of the participants and this increase positively affected vasodilation. Key words: endothelial progenitor cell, hypertension, neovascularization, exercise