Exercise Training and Blood Vessel Function in Obese Adults
Tests whether exercise training improves blood vessel function in obese adults aged 18 to 45.
Key facts
- Who runs it
- Florida State University
- Where
- Tallahassee, United StatesSee the site
- Trial code
- Registry title
- Microvascular Dysfunction in Obesity
- Status
- Recruiting
- People taking part
- 25 people, planned
- Started
- 20 Nov 2019
- Expected to end
- 31 May 2027
- Type of study
- Interventional
- Treatments tested
- Exercise
- Record updated
- 11 December 2025
Who can take part
AI summary
From the trial's eligibility criteria. Machine-read from the registry text on this page, so it can be wrong. The registry text below and the trial team decide who can take part.
The trial is looking for sedentary, weight-stable obese adults aged 18 to 45 with the Metabolic Syndrome. It studies muscle blood vessel function and exercise training.
- Age
- 18 Years to 45 Years
- Sex
- All sexes. Women must be premenopausal and on combined estrogen/progestin hormonal contraception.
- Disease stage
- Obesity with the Metabolic Syndrome (at least three of the listed features, such as large waist, high triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol, raised blood pressure or raised fasting blood glucose). Sedentary.
- Earlier treatment
- Weight stable for the past 6 months. No antioxidant, herbal or vitamin supplements for at least 2 weeks before. No regular endurance exercise training.
- Biomarker or test result
- Metabolic Syndrome measures: waist size, fasting triglycerides above 150 mg/dL (1.7 mmol/L), HDL cholesterol (men below 40 mg/dL (1 mmol/L), women below 50 mg/dL (1.3 mmol/L)), blood pressure above 130/85 mmHg, fasting glucose above 110 mg/dL (6.1 mmol/L).
Main reasons for not taking part
- Diabetes (fasting blood glucose above 125 mg/dL (6.9 mmol/L)) or hypertension above 160/95 mmHg
- Pregnant or breastfeeding
- Smokers or tobacco chewers
- Heart failure, angina, peripheral vascular disease or serious heart rhythm problems
- Taking anti-inflammatory drugs, serotonin reuptake inhibitors or medicines that affect circulation
The registry criteria, word for word
Show all 19 criteriaShow less
Who can take part
- There will be no restrictions with regard to race, sex, or socioeconomic status
- Women will be premenopausal
- Women will be on combined estrogen/progestin hormonal contraceptive therapy (oral pill, transdermal patch or vaginal ring)
- Sedentary obese individuals will have been weight stable for the preceding 6 months
- Sedentary obese individuals will have the Metabolic Syndrome as defined according to the Third Report of the National Cholesterol Education Program Expert Panel on Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment of High Blood Cholesterol in Adults (Adult Treatment Panel III)
- Individuals with the Metabolic Syndrome will have at least three of the following:; Central obesity as measured by waist circumference (men >40 inches; women >35 inches); Fasting blood triglycerides > 150 mg/dL; Blood HDL cholesterol in men<40 mg/dL and women <50 mg/dL; Blood pressure > 130/85 mmHg; 5) Fasting blood glucose > 110 mg/dL, and (not per ATP III) a 2-hour GTT glucose of 140-200 mg/dl
Who cannot take part
- Individuals taking medications that may affect central or peripheral circulation,
- Individuals on nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory agents or serotonin reuptake inhibitors,
- Individuals taking antioxidant, herbal or vitamin supplementation for at least 2 weeks prior to investigation
- hypertension >160/95 mmHg
- Individuals with congestive heart failure, angina, or peripheral vascular disease. --Individuals with ECG evidence of serious arrhythmias and/or acute myocardial ischemia reflected in ST-segment depression of 1 mm or greater at rest or during exercise
- Individuals with chronic infections, paralysis due to stroke, advanced Parkinson's Disease, severe rheumatoid arthritis or other serious orthopedic problems that would prevent performance of the exercise training tasks will be excluded
- Individuals with diabetes (fasting blood glucose >125 mg/dL),
- Subjects participating in purposeful endurance exercise training (>20 min/day, >1 day/week) will be excluded
- Pre-menopausal female subjects must not be pregnant or lactating, and must have had regular menstrual cycles for the past year
- Individuals who smoke or chew tobacco,
- Individuals ingesting caffeine the day of the experiment
- Individuals whose weight changes by more than 5% during the training program
- Individuals whose exercise adherence is below 90% of the exercise sessions or total exercise time
Check if you might fit
Answer for yourself. This is not a decision: only the study team can say whether you can take part.
- Are you between 18 and 45 years old?
Where in United States
- Florida State UniversityTallahassee, United StatesContact: Robert HicknerTaking people
About the trial
What the trial wants to find out
Impaired endothelial function is observed in disease states related to obesity, such as atherosclerosis, coronary artery disease, and diabetes. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) production and resultant oxidative stress contribute to the development of these obesity-related diseases. The enzyme NADPH-oxidase is a major source of oxidative stress within the vasculature, and has been linked with the Metabolic Syndrome. In the investigator's previously funded studies, the investigators demonstrated for the first time that: 1) in vivo ROS were elevated in skeletal muscle of obese as compared to lean or overweight human subjects, 2) perfusion of the NADPH-oxidase inhibitor apocynin locally into muscle normalized ROS levels and reversed local microvascular endothelial dysfunction in the obese individuals, and 3) aerobic exercise training was effective at attenuating in vivo hydrogen peroxide production and reversing microvascular endothelial dysfunction in the obese individuals. The investigators will investigate in this R15 renewal application the mechanism of exercise training-induced alterations in ROS production and action on endothelial dysfunction in obesity using our newly developed microdialysis methodology of monitoring ROS production, in combination with analysis of muscle biopsy samples obtained before and after our previously tested 8-week intervention of aerobic interval exercise training. The objectives of this study are to determine the impact of in vivo NADPH oxidase activity on endothelial function in obese individuals, and to determine the mechanism of training-induced improvements in endothelial function. The investigator's unique microdialysis methodology will allow monitoring of microvascular/endothelial function and ROS generation, as well as the administration of pharmacological agents directly into muscle. The central hypothesis is that it is upregulation of both mitochondrial ROS and NADPH oxidase-derived ROS that results in endothelial dysfunction in obesity, and that exercise training down-regulates mitochondrial-derived ROS, and NADPH oxidase 4, thereby improving endothelial function. The aims of this proposal are to: 1) determine the contributions of mitochondrial ROS and specific NADPH oxidase isoforms to the NADPH oxidase dependent endothelial dysfunction in skeletal muscle of obese individuals; 2) determine the mechanism of ROS reduction and improved endothelial function resulting from an 8-week aerobic interval training program.
The group in the trial
- Exercise trainingTreatment being tested
Eight weeks of interval exercise training
Treatment: Exercise
Questions to ask the study team
- How often do I need to come in, and for how long each time?
- Are travel costs paid?
- Can I keep my own doctor?
- What happens if I want to stop?
Contact the study team: see the registry record → Contacts and Locations
Print a page for my doctorData and sources
- Registry record
- Listed on ClinicalTrials.gov.
- Official title
- NADPH Oxidase Activity and Muscle Microvascular Dysfunction in Obesity
- Plain-language title
- Exercise Training and Blood Vessel Function in Obese AdultsGenerated from the registry record. The registry title is the official one.
- AI summary
- From the trial's eligibility criteria. Read by machine on 12 November 2026.
- Fit questions
- Built from NCT04087655, who can take part
- Record updated
- 11 December 2025