To investigate the effect of physical exercise on the endothelial repair capacity of endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) in patients with coronary heart disease (CHD) .

Sixty-eight CHD subjects (diagnosed by coronary angiography) were enrolled into the study. All subjects were randomly divided into a control group (67.5±5.8 years old, n = 32) and a treatment group (68.3±7.1 years old, n = 36). Subjects of the treatment group were undergone a 3 months treadmill exercise test intervention (30 min/d for 3 days per week, MET 4.5) except conventional drugs treatment, and the control group were just treated by conventional drugs treatment. The migration of EPCs was detected by modified Boyden chamber assay and the adhesion of EPCs was calculated by the number of fluorescently labeled EPCs adhered to human umbilical vein endothelial cells before and after treadmill exercise test. Nude mice carotid arterial intimal injury model was used to observe reendothelialization capacity in vivo of EPCs. Flow- mediated dilatation (FMD) and Pulse wave velocity (PWV) of subjects were observed before and after 3-month treadmill exercise test, with one-way ANNOVA and PearsonCorrelation analysis.

The migration and adhesion function were improved, and the reendothelialization area of EPCs was bigger (after exercise: 53.4%±9.1% vs before exercise: 35.9%±4.9%; P < 0.01) ; FMD level was higher (after exercise: 8.1%±2.6% vs before exercise: 5.8%±2.2%; P < 0.001) ; PWV level was lower[after exercise: (1618±160.2) cm/s vs before exercise: (1456±125) cm/s; P < 0.01] in healthy elderly subjects after 3-month physical exercise than before exercise. Pearson correlation analysis showed that improved FMD and decreased PWV were positively correlated with the increased reendothelialization area of EPCs. However, the FMD, PWV, in vitro and in vivo functional activities of EPCs from the control group have no obvious change.

Physical exercise obviously improved endothelial function and arterial elasticity in CHD, which may partly resulted from enhancement of endogenous endothelial repair capacity of EPCs.