Murias JM, Grise KN, Jiang M, Kowalchuk H, Melling CWJ, Noble EG. Acute endurance exercise induces changes in vasorelaxation responses that are vessel-specific. Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 304: R574 -R580, 2013. First published December 12, 2012 doi:10.1152/ajpregu.00508.2012.-The dynamic adjustment and amplitude of the endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation of the carotid, aorta, iliac, and femoral vessels were measured in response to acute low-(LI) or high-intensity (HI) endurance exercise. Vasorelaxation to 10 Ϫ4 M ACh was evaluated in 10 control, 10 LI, and 10 HI rats. Two-millimeter sections of carotid, aorta, iliac, and femoral arteries were mounted onto a myography system. Vasorelaxation responses were modeled as a monoexponential function. The overall (control, 10.5 Ϯ 6.0 s; LI, 10.4 Ϯ 5.7 s; HI, 11.0 Ϯ 6.9 s) and time-to-steady-state (control, 47.6 Ϯ 24.0 s; LI, 46.2 Ϯ 22.8 s; HI, 49.1 Ϯ 28.3 s) was similar in LI, HI, and control (P Ͼ 0.05). The overall (average of four vessel-type) % vasorelaxation was larger in LI (73 Ϯ 16%) and HI (73 Ϯ 16%) than in control (66 Ϯ 19%) (P Ͻ 0.05). The overall rate of vasorelaxation was greater in LI (1.9 Ϯ 0.9%·s
Ϫ1) and HI (1.9 Ϯ 1.1%·s
Ϫ1) compared with control (1.6 Ϯ 0.7%·s Ϫ1 ) (P Ͻ 0.05). The vessel-specific responses (average response for the three conditions) showed that carotid displayed a slower adjustment (, 18.9 Ϯ 4.4 s; time-to-steady-state, 80.4 Ϯ 18.4 s) compared with the aorta (, 10.3 Ϯ 3.8 s; time-to-steady-state, 46.3 Ϯ 15.2 s), the iliac (, 6.3 Ϯ 2.1 s; time-to-steady-state, 30.3 Ϯ 9.0 s), and the femoral (, 6.0 Ϯ 1.9 s; time-to-steady-state, 29.3 Ϯ 8.4 s). The % vasorelaxation was larger in the carotid (82 Ϯ 14%) than in the aorta (67 Ϯ 16%), iliac (61 Ϯ 13%), and femoral (71 Ϯ 19%) (P Ͼ 0.05). The rate of vasorelaxation was carotid (1.1 Ϯ 0.2%·s, and femoral (2.6 Ϯ 1.0%·s Ϫ1 ). In conclusion, an acute bout of endurance exercise increased vascular responsiveness. The dynamic and percent adjustments were vessel-specific with vessel function likely determining the response. endothelium-dependent vasorelaxation; vessel myography; vascular responsiveness; vascular kinetics THE MATCHING OF BLOOD FLOW to the metabolic demands for oxygen and other nutrients throughout different organs is of critical importance to maintain cellular energetics and homeostasis (2). In this regard, relaxation of the vascular smooth muscle through diffusion of nitric oxide (NO) produced in the endothelial cells through the activation of endothelial NO synthase (e-NOS) has been shown to be fundamental (6,9,29). Although the positive effects of endurance exercise training on vascular responsiveness (and more specifically endothelium-dependent vasodilation) have been demonstrated (12,13,15,28), the effects of an acute bout of exercise on vascular responsiveness are poorly understood. For instance, an early study by Delp and Laughlin (5) showed no changes in the vasorelaxation response to a given dose of ACh in the aorta arteries of rats 24 h after a single, 1-h bout of...