Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

DOI

10.1007/s40279-025-02238-x

Publication Title

Sports Medicine

Volume

55

Issue

8

Pages

1937-1952

Abstract

Background

Endothelial dysfunction is associated with cardiovascular disease and cardiac events. Numerous studies demonstrate that a reduction in physical activity/exercise levels are associated with poor endothelial function. Yet, these studies use a plethora of models to mimic reduced activity levels which may have widely different results on endothelial function. It is pertinent to collectively review these articles to provide a comprehensive understanding of the impact of reduced activity on vascular health, as endothelial function is one of many factors that influences vascular tone.

Objective

The purpose of this systematic review is to examine and synthesize the current literature regarding the effects of acutely (≤ ~ 2 months) reducing physical activity on endothelial function.

Methods

This systematic review contains a search of two databases (PubMed, Web of Science) conducted by two reviewers. After screening and review, the search yielded 20 studies that were appraised and reviewed.

Results

Articles were separated into four categories based on the type of inactivity intervention: reduction in daily physical activity interventions, detraining (removal of exercise) interventions, bed rest interventions, and immobilization interventions. Acute physical inactivity interventions were largely shown to reduce upper and lower limb artery flow-mediated dilation and lower limb microvascular function.

Conclusion

The results indicate that those studies with increased time spent in inactivity, as well as increased severity of inactivity, were more likely to have negative endothelial function outcomes. Future research should examine differences in the severity of physical inactivity interventions regarding endothelial function.

Rights

© The Authors 2025

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Data Availability

Article states: "All studies from which data were examined are cited in the references section."

Original Publication Citation

Harden, J. E., David Branch, J., & Reynolds, L. J. (2025). Impacts of physical inactivity models on endothelial function: A systematic review. Sports Medicine, 55(8), 1937-1952. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40279-025-02238-x

ORCID

0000-0002-1510-0202 (Harden), 0000-0003-0075-2168 (Reynolds)

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