Prolonged, uninterrupted sitting negatively impacts markers of peripheral vascular
health, particularly, vasodilatory function of leg arteries. Whether sitting can similarly
impact measures of central vascular health, as well as overall leg vasoreactivity
(i.e., vasodilatory and vasoconstrictor function) remains unknown. To address this,
measurements were made in relatively healthy participants (i.e., free of overt disease;
n = 20, age = 26 ± 7; body mass index = 30 ± 7 kg/m2; 7 female) pre, during and post 3 hours of uninterrupted sitting. Measures of central
vascular health included arterial wave reflection (augmentation index and Reflection
Magnitude—RM%) and aortic vascular stiffness (aortic pulse wave velocity). Local vasoreactivity
of the distal, posterior tibial artery was measured using flow-mediated dilation—FMD,
coupled with low-flow mediated constriction, and microvascular function was assessed
through the total hyperemic blood velocity (area-under-curve) response during FMD.
After sitting, there was a significant increase in aortic pulse wave velocity (pre
sit = 5.7 ± 0.3 vs post sit = 6.1 ± 0.3 m/s; p = 0.009, d = 0.36), whereas, augmentation index decreased (pre sit = 13 ± 3 vs post sit = 3 ±
1%; p < 0.001, d = 0.71). Albeit a moderate effect for decrease, RM% was not significantly altered
during sitting (p = 0.13, d = 0.3). Vasodilatory (i.e., FMD pre sit = 0.5 ± 0.04 vs post sit = 0.3 ± 0.04 mm; p
= 0.014, d = 0.29) and microvascular function (i.e., Microvascular area-under-curve: pre sit = 2,196
± 333 vs 1,157±172 AU; p = 0.003, d = 0.31) decreased, but vasoconstrictor function (low-flow mediated constriction; p
= 0.85, d = 0.005) was unaffected by sitting. In conclusion, these data demonstrate that a prolonged
bout of uninterrupted sitting negatively impacts markers of peripheral and central
vascular health in relatively healthy adults.
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: October 22, 2018
Received in revised form:
October 8,
2018
Received:
August 27,
2018
Footnotes
Funding: This work was supported by a grant through the American Kinesiotherapy Association grant# GR05488.
Identification
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© 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
