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Three months of strictly controlled daily endurance exercise reduces thrombin generation and fibrinolytic risk markers in younger moderately overweight men

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Abstract

Purpose

Physical activity is associated with a decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, but dose dependency of long-term physical exercise on biomarkers within coagulation and fibrinolysis is unknown. We aimed to investigate effects of two doses of daily endurance exercise on biomarkers of the haemostatic balance in overweight men.

Methods

Haemostatic variables were investigated in 53 healthy, younger (20–40 years), moderately overweight (BMI 25–30 kg/m2) men randomly assigned to 3 months of strictly controlled endurance exercise at two different doses corresponding to an energy expenditure of 600 kcal/day (HIGH), 300 kcal/day (MOD), or to maintain their habitual lifestyle (CON). Fasting blood samples were collected before and after the intervention and analysed for thrombin generation (endogenous thrombin potential, ETP) and concentrations of tissue-type plasminogen activator (t-PA), plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1 (PAI-1), and von Willebrand factor (vWF).

Results

We observed significant within-group decreases in ETP (MOD 7 %; HIGH 6 %) and in t-PA (MOD 22 %; HIGH 21 %) and PAI-1 (MOD 16 %; HIGH 32 %) in both training groups, and no changes in the CON group. At 3 months, between-group differences were observed for ETP (p = 0.016) and t-PA (p = 0.012) due to significantly lower values in MOD and HIGH compared with CON. Borderline significant between-group differences were observed for PAI-1 (p = 0.082). A significant increase was observed in vWF in HIGH, but with no between-group differences.

Conclusions

Our results demonstrate an effect of 3 months of daily endurance exercise on biomarkers of the haemostatic balance in the direction of reduced cardiovascular risk, independent of exercise dose.

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Abbreviations

ANCOVA:

Analysis of covariance

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

aPTT:

Activated partial thromboplastin time

BMI:

Body mass index

BP:

Blood pressure

CON:

Control group

CVD:

Cardiovascular disease

ELISA:

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay

ETP:

Endogenous thrombin potential

FINE:

Four-IN-onE

HIGH:

High-dose exercise group

MOD:

Moderate-dose exercise group

PAI-1:

Plasminogen activator inhibitor type-1

SD:

Standard deviation

TF:

Tissue factor

t-PA:

Tissue-type plasminogen activator

vWF:

Von Willebrand factor

95 % CI:

95 % Confidence interval

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Acknowledgments

This work was carried out as part of the research program “UNIK—Food, Fitness and Pharma for Health and Disease” (http://foodfitnesspharma.ku.dk) supported by the Danish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation. Salary of Anne Sofie Gram was funded by Lida and Oskar Nielsen’s Foundation (Esbjerg, Denmark) and the University of Copenhagen Excellence Programme for Interdisciplinarity Research (www.go.ku.dk). We would furthermore like to thank the physicians Pernille Auerbach and Michala Holm Reichkendler, Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, for collection of data, the volunteers who participated in the study, the scientific collaborators, and the technical staff from the Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Copenhagen and from the Unit for Thrombosis Research, University of Southern Denmark and Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Hospital of South West Denmark, Esbjerg, Denmark.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Blegdamsvej 3, 2200, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Anne Sofie Gram, Thorkil Ploug, Mads Rosenkilde & Bente Merete Stallknecht

  2. Unit for Thrombosis Research, Institute of Public Health, Department of Clinical Biochemistry, Hospital of South West Denmark, University of Southern Denmark, Esbjerg, Denmark

    Anne Sofie Gram, Else-Marie Bladbjerg, Jane Skov & Daniel Elenius Madsen

  3. Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Anders Sjödin

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  1. Anne Sofie Gram
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  2. Else-Marie Bladbjerg
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Correspondence to Anne Sofie Gram.

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Communicated by Fabio Fischetti.

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Gram, A.S., Bladbjerg, EM., Skov, J. et al. Three months of strictly controlled daily endurance exercise reduces thrombin generation and fibrinolytic risk markers in younger moderately overweight men. Eur J Appl Physiol 115, 1331–1338 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3106-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3106-z

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