Introduction: Inflammation plays an important role in the pathogenesis of hypertension. In contrast, exercise training has been identified as an effective anti-inflammatory factor. The aim of present study was to investigate the effect of 12 Weeks endurance training with L-arginine supplementation on the levels of IL-6 and TNF-α in postmenopausal hypertensive women.
Methods: For this purpose, the 40 postmenopausal women’s (average age of 55.26±2.56 years old, BMI: 28.61±1.18 kg.m2) with hypertension divided in four group including the placebo, L-arginine, training and training + L-arginine groups. Endurance training program conducted for 12 weeks and three session per week. Moreover, L-arginine consumption was 6 g daily. Blood sampling performed in pre and post-test (48 hours after last training session or L-arginine ingestion) stages and IL-6 and TNF-α levels were measured by ELISA method.
Results: Present study results indicated significant intergroup difference for IL-6, TNF-α, systolic and diastolic blood pressure (P<0.05). The Bonferroni post hoc test indicated significant decrease of IL-6 levels in training group compared to placebo (P=0.044) and L-arginine (P=0.024) groups and also in training + L-arginine group compared to placebo (P=0.001) and L-arginine (P=0.001) groups. TNF-α levels in training (P=0.001) and training + L-arginine (P=0.001) group decreased significantly compared to placebo group. Significant decrease of systolic blood pressure in L-arginine, training and training + L-arginine groups compared to placebo group were observed (P<0.001).
Conclusions: It seems that, decrease the levels of inflammatory cytokines such as IL-6 and TNF-α have an effective role in down-regulating blood pressure in hypertensive patients and L-arginine can have a synergistic effect on lowering systolic blood pressure with exercise training