Exercise reduces blood vessel stiffening in hypertensive mice
In an experiment in male mice with induced high blood pressure, treadmill exercise restored a vessel protein and lessened structural changes in vessel walls.
Limit: Hypertension was induced for only six weeks, limiting conclusions about lasting reductions in vessel stiffness
Edited by Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Male C57BL/6 mice received six weeks of angiotensin II infusions under the skin to induce high blood pressure in an animal experiment. Researchers randomly assigned the animals to remain sedentary or complete moderate-intensity treadmill exercise. Exercise reduced blood pressure rises, vessel stiffness, and remodeling, the structural reshaping of vessel walls. Aortic tests showed that FXYD2, a protein mainly expressed in vascular smooth muscle cells, decreased with hypertension and was restored by exercise.
In smooth muscle cells grown in the lab, increasing FXYD2 reduced a marker of a tissue-building state and increased markers of a contracting state. In mice lacking FXYD2 in these muscle cells, vessel walls thickened further and exercise no longer protected vessels. Artificially boosting FXYD2 in hypertensive mice reduced vascular remodeling.
Why it matters
Hypertension-related changes in blood vessel walls contribute to organ damage. Understanding how exercise limits those changes may help identify targets for hypertensive vascular disease.
Caveats
The experiment tested chemically induced hypertension in male mice, not human vascular aging. The findings were reported in a conference abstract.
The paper
Peking University Third Hospital
ESC Congress 2026 Abstract, Oct 26, 2026
Presented at ESC Congress 2026
