Use of -adrenergic receptor (AR) blocker is associated with increased risk of fatigue and exercise intolerance. Nebivolol is a newer generation -blocker, which is thought to avoid this side effect via its vasodilating property. However, the effects of nebivolol on skeletal muscle perfusion during exercise have not been determined in hypertensive patients. Accordingly, we performed contrast-enhanced ultrasound perfusion imaging of the forearm muscles in 25 untreated stage I hypertensive patients at rest and during handgrip exercise at baseline or after 12 wk of treatment with nebivolol (5-20 mg/day) or metoprolol succinate (100 -300 mg/day), with a subsequent double crossover for 12 wk. Metoprolol and nebivolol each induced a reduction in the resting blood pressure and heart rate (130.9 Ϯ 2.6/81.7 Ϯ 1.8 vs. 131.6 Ϯ 2.7/80.8 Ϯ 1.5 mmHg and 63 Ϯ 2 vs. 64 Ϯ 2 beats/min) compared with baseline (142.1 Ϯ 2.0/88.7 Ϯ 1.4 mmHg and 75 Ϯ 2 beats/min, respectively, both P Ͻ 0.01). Metoprolol significantly attenuated the increase in microvascular blood volume (MBV) during handgrip at 12 and 20 repetitions/min by 50% compared with baseline (mixed-model P Ͻ 0.05), which was not observed with nebivolol. Neither metoprolol nor nebivolol affected microvascular flow velocity (MFV). Similarly, metoprolol and nebivolol had no effect on the increase in the conduit brachial artery flow as determined by duplex Doppler ultrasound. Thus our study demonstrated a first direct evidence for metoprolol-induced impairment in the recruitment of microvascular units during exercise in hypertensive humans, which was avoided by nebivolol. This selective reduction in MBV without alteration in MFV by metoprolol suggested impaired vasodilation at the precapillary arteriolar level.exercise; sympathetic nervous system; muscle blood flow; hypertension
NEW & NOTEWORTHYWe identified a deleterious effect of chronic administration of metoprolol on microvascular function during handgrip in hypertensive patients, which was not observed with nebivolol. The impaired muscle capillary recruitment during exercise may predispose to development of exercise intolerance.PREVIOUS STUDIES DEMONSTRATED impaired muscle capillary recruitment in hypertension (8, 12), possibly related to impaired microvascular function or capillary rarefaction (27,28). In hypertensive patients, both metoprolol and propranolol can further impair microvascular function by acutely reducing resting capillary blood flow in the skeletal muscle (22, 23), which may predispose to development of exercise intolerance or fatigue. Nebivolol is a third-generation -adrenergic receptor (AR) blocker that also possesses vasodilator properties (35). The vasodilator effect is attributed to partly due to the antioxidant effect via inhibition of NADPH oxidase activity or reduced expression of the NADPH oxidase subunits p47 phox (18,20, 35). However, the chronic effect of either older or newer generation -AR blockers on microvascular function during exercise and endothelial cell (EC) expression of the p47 phox N...