Impact of active lifestyle on heart rate variability and oxidative stress markers in offspring of hypertensives

Abstract

Familial history of hypertension is associated with autonomic dysfunction and increase in blood pressure (BP). On the other hand, an active lifestyle has been found to improve a number of health outcomes and reduce all‐cause mortality. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of an active lifestyle on hemodynamics, heart rate variability (HRV) and oxidative stress markers in offspring of hypertensive parents. One hundred twenty‐seven subjects were assigned into four groups: sedentary offspring of normotensives (S‐ON) or hypertensives (S‐OH); and physically active offspring of normotensives (A‐ON) or hypertensives (A‐OH). The level of physical activity was determined using the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. Heart rate (HR), systolic (SBP) and diastolic BP (DBP) were measured at rest. The assessment of cardiac autonomic modulation was performed by HRV analysis. Oxidant stress was assessed by Hydrogen peroxide concentration, Superoxide anion, Lipid Peroxide levels and Protein Carbonyls measurements in plasma. Diastolic BP and heart rate were reduced in the physically active groups when compared to S‐OH group. A‐ON and A‐OH groups presented increased values of RR total variance when compared to the sedentary ones (A‐ON: 4912±538 vs. S‐ON: 2354±159; A‐OH: 3112±236 vs. S‐OH: 2232±241ms2). Cardiac sympato‐vagal balance (LF/HF), systemic hydrogen peroxide and superoxide anion were markedly increased in S‐OH group when compared to all other studied groups. Systemically, superoxide anion and hydrogen peroxide were increased in S‐OH group when compared to S‐ON group. However, both physically active groups (A‐ON and A‐OH) presented reduced levels of superoxide anion (A‐ON: 41.0±4.1 and A‐OH: 48.3±3.4 vs. S‐OH: 56.7±3.9 nmol/mg of protein) and hydrogen peroxide (A‐ON: 8.95±0.9 and A‐OH: 9.6±1.8 vs. S‐OH: 16.68±2.7 μM) when compared to S‐OH group. Additionally, correlations were observed between LF/HF with diastolic BP (r=0.30, p<0.05) and hydrogen peroxide (r=0.41, p<0.05). Thus, our findings confirm the presence of early autonomic dysfunction in offspring of hypertensive parents, which was associated with a systemic increase in reactive oxygen species and blood pressure. However, our most important finding lies in the attenuation of such disorders in offspring of physically active hypertensives, thus emphasizing the importance of a physically active lifestyle in the prevention of early disorders that may be associated with development of hypertension.Support or Funding InformationFinancial support: UNINOVE, CNPq, CAPES, FAPESP.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Influence of family history of hypertension on blood pressure and heart rate variability in young adults: a meta-analysis

“…Figure 1 shows a flowchart of selected studies. Among the 38 studies included in the quantitative analysis, with 2025 participants with ~25 years old, 21 included only men [11,12,[15][16][17][20][21][22][23][24][25]27,[31][32][33][34][35][36], five included only women [18,28,37,38], and 12 both sexes [8][9][10]13,14,19,26,[39][40][41][42]. Of these studies, 37 assessed clinic BP, 18 HRV indices, and five ambulatory BP.…”

“…Of these studies, 37 assessed clinic BP, 18 HRV indices, and five ambulatory BP. Of the HRV studies, 14 included only men [15][16][17]20,[22][23][24][25]27,32,33], four included both sexes [9,14,26], and no HRV study included only women. HRV was measured through ECG [9,17,20,[23][24][25][26]32,33] or heart rate monitor [14][15][16]22,27], with 5-min [17,20,23,24] to 30-min [33] analyses.…”

“…not necessarily accompanied by increased BP in young adults [14][15][16][17]27]. It remains to be studied whether the adrenergic activation precedes and promotes the elevation of BP.…”

“…To our knowledge, this is the first meta-analysis that summarizes evidence on the impact of FHH + on BP and HRV in young adults. Several studies included in this meta-analysis showed higher clinic systolic [9,13,32] and diastolic BPs [27,33,35,38] or both [8,11,12,39] in the offspring of hypertensive parents, without publication bias since the analysis of funnel plots for these outcomes were symmetric. Compared with individuals with FHH − , individuals with FHH + had a significantly higher rate of systolic BP increase (2.9 vs. 2.6 mmHg) over 10 years, after time-varying adjustment for BMI, cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, coffee drinking, and physical activity.…”

“…The data extraction (author and year, participants, mean, and SD of outcomes) was also made independently and further compared with avoid errors. We treated as separate studies those that presented results separately for (a) active/trained and no-active/sedentary [15,26,27], (b) normal weight and overweight [22] individuals, and (c) individuals with just one hypertensive parent and with both parents hypertensive [28].…”