Effects of early exercise training on circulating endothelial progenitor cells in patients with acute ischemic stroke / 中华物理医学与康复杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To observe the effects on and the possible mechanism of early exercise training underlying the mobilization of circulating endothelial progenitor cells in patients with acute ischemic stroke.Methods One hundred and twenty patients with acute ischemic stroke were randomized into two groupsan early exercise group (treated with exercise training,n =60) and a control group(no exercise training,n =60).Meanwhile,each group was divided into two different age groups (50-68 years group of 32 cases,＞ 68 years group of 28 cases in exercise group;50-68 years group of 29 cases,＞ 68 years of 31 cases in control group).The amount of circulating endothelial progenitor cells in peripheral blood was accounted by flow cytometry (FCM),while the level of vascular endothelial cell growth factor (VEGF) in blood serum was examined by enzyme-linked immunoassay (ELISA).National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS),Fugl-Meyer Assessment (FMA) and modified Barthel index (MBI) were used to evaluate the patients at 1st day and 14th day after exercise.Results The amount of circulating progenitor cells after 14 days of exercise training in exercise group (from 27.93 ± 6.08/ml to 457.49 ± 73.02/ml)is higher than in control group(from 28.29 ± 5.93/ml to 81.87 ± 9.92/ml) (P ＜ 0.01).Compared with the control group,the level of VEGF at 14th day of exercise group is significantly higher (P ＜ 0.01).The score of NIHSS,FMA,MBI were not significantly different between exercise group and control group (P ＜ 0.01).However,the score of NIHSS was decrease in both exercise group and control group after treatment.Furthermore,the amount of circulating progenitor cells was not significantly different between the age groups either in exercise group or control group (P ＞ 0.05).Conclusion Early Exercise training may promote the mobilization of the circulating progenitor cells,which might be related to the increase of VEGF.The mobilization of the EPCs has no effect on the early neurological function after acute ischemic stroke.Age is not associated with the amount of circulating endothelial progenitor cells.