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Research Paper|Volume 12, Issue 2|pp 1201—1212

Increased serum salusin-α by aerobic exercise training correlates with improvements in arterial stiffness in middle-aged and older adults

Shumpei Fujie1,2,3, Natsuki Hasegawa4, Kiyoshi Sanada5, Takafumi Hamaoka6, Seiji Maeda1, Jaume Padilla3,7, Luis A. Martinez-Lemus3,8, Motoyuki Iemitsu5
  • 1Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
  • 2Research Fellow of Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo, Japan
  • 3Dalton Cardiovascular Research Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA
  • 4Research Organization of Science and Technology, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, Japan
  • 5Faculty of Sport and Health Science, Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, Japan
  • 6Sports Medicine for Health Promotion, Tokyo Medical University, Tokyo, Japan
  • 7Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65201, USA
  • 8Department of Medical Pharmacology and Physiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212, USA
Received: October 8, 2019Accepted: December 25, 2019Published: January 9, 2020
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.102678

Copyright: © 2020 Fujie et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Aging causes arterial stiffening which can be mitigated by increased physical activity. Although low circulating levels of salusin-α are associated with cardiovascular disease, whether salusin-α decreases with aging and whether the reduced arterial stiffening occurring with exercise training is associated with increased serum salusin-α is unknown. Herein we assessed carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (cfPWV), systolic (SBP) and diastolic (DBP) blood pressures in a cross-sectional study that compared young (20-39-year-old, n=45) versus middle-aged and older (40-80-year-old, n=60) subjects. We also performed an interventional study in which 36 young and 40 middle-aged and older subjects underwent eight weeks of aerobic exercise training. In the cross-sectional study, serum salusin-α levels were lesser in middle-aged and older subjects compared to young individuals and negatively correlated with age, SBP, DBP, or cfPWV. In the interventional study, exercise training increased serum salusin-α in middle-aged and older subjects. Notably, negative correlations were noted between the exercise training-induced changes in serum salusin-α and cfPWV, SBP and DBP. Results indicate that advanced age associates with low circulating salusin-α, the levels of which can be augmented by exercise training. Importantly, increased serum salusin-α with exercise correlates with improvements in arterial stiffness and a reduction in blood pressure.