Journal article
Short-term treatment with L-arginine prevents the smoking-induced impairment of endothelial function and vascular elastic properties in young individuals.
- Abstract:
- BACKGROUND: L-arginine, the substrate for endothelial nitric oxide synthase, is essential for normal endothelial function. Aim of the present study was to investigate in healthy smokers the effect of a short-term daily L-arginine administration on vascular function. METHODS: We studied the effect of a 3-day oral administration of L-arginine in 10 healthy smokers (24.3+/-0.73 years old) on 3 occasions (day , day 1 and day 3). The study was carried out on two separate arms, one with L-arginine (7 gr/d) and one with placebo according to a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, cross-over design. Measurements were carried out before, immediately after (Sm0) and 20 min after (Sm20) cigarette smoking. Endothelial function was evaluated by flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity (PWV) was measured as an index of aortic stiffness and augmentation index (AIx) as a measure of arterial wave reflections. RESULTS: Compared to placebo, L-arginine led to an increase of FMD (p<0.05 at day 2), indicating a favorable effect on endothelial function, which however lost significance at day 3. l-arginine induced a progressive decrease of PWV and AIx at both day 2 and day 3 (p<0.01 vs baseline for all). L-arginine blunted the acute smoking-induced increase of AIx at both day 1 (p<0.05) and day 3 (p<0.01), and there was a trend to protect the smoking-induced change of PWV at day 3 (p<0.1). CONCLUSIONS: Short-term daily administration of L-arginine improves arterial performance in healthy smokers and abrogates the smoking-induced increase in arterial stiffness and wave reflections in these individuals.
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- Publisher copy:
- 10.1016/j.ijcard.2007.04.057
Authors
- Journal:
- International journal of cardiology More from this journal
- Volume:
- 126
- Issue:
- 3
- Pages:
- 394-399
- Publication date:
- 2008-06-01
- DOI:
- EISSN:
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1874-1754
- ISSN:
-
0167-5273
- Language:
-
English
- Keywords:
-
- Pubs id:
-
pubs:223244
- UUID:
-
uuid:061478dd-8ac4-4a1c-b30a-c1b2884442bf
- Local pid:
-
pubs:223244
- Source identifiers:
-
223244
- Deposit date:
-
2012-12-19
- ARK identifier:
Terms of use
- Copyright date:
- 2008
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