Background:
Endothelial dysfunction is associated with childhood obesity and is closely linked to theamount and function of endothelial progenitor cells. However, it remains unclear whetherendothelial progenitor cells increase with after-school exercise in overweight and obesechildren. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an after-school exerciseprogramme on endothelial cell function in overweight and obese children.
Methods:
A total of 29 overweight/obese children (12.2 +/- 0.1 years) were randomly divided into control(i.e. no after-school exercise, n = 14) and after-school exercise (n = 15) groups. The 12-weekafter-school exercise intervention consisted of 3 days of combined aerobic and resistanceexercise per week. Each 80-minute exercise programme included 10 minutes of warm-up and10 minutes of cool-down after school. CD34+ (a cell surface marker on hematopoietic stemcells), CD133+ (a cell surface marker on hematopoietic progenitor cells) and CD34+/CD133+(considered as endothelial progenitor cells) were measured at baseline and after 12 weeksusing flow cytometry.
Results:
Increased percentages of CD34+, CD133+ and CD34+/CD133+ cells were observed in theafter-school exercise group (p = 0.018; p = 0.001; p = 0.002, respectively) compared with thecontrol group. Carotid intima-media thickness decreased after 12 weeks in the after-schoolexercise group (p = 0.020) compared with the control group.
Conclusions:
This study provides preliminary evidence that a combined after-school exercise programmemay represent an effective intervention strategy for improving vascular repair and endothelialcell function, leading to improved cardiovascular health in overweight and obese children.Trial registrationCurrent Controlled Trials ISRCTN19037201