BOSTON, Dec. 9 (UPI) -- The single best help for peripheral artery disease is exercise, U.S. researchers say.
Researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston say their study finds how exercise causes a protein called PGC-1 alpha senses dangerously low levels of oxygen and nutrients and spurs the growth of new blood vessels to rescue blood-starved tissue -- a process called angiogenesis.
"Our data strongly suggest a new paradigm for the process of angiogenesis in response to exercise, demonstrating that upstream beta-adrenergic signaling, likely stemming from increased nerve activity, triggers angiogenesis," the study authors said in a statement.
The study findings suggest using beta blockers in PAD patients could possibly block some of the benefits of exercise.
"With this study, we have found that the protein PGC-1 alpha can single-handedly transform muscle to be capable of greater endurance and increase the blood content of that muscle," senior author Dr. Zoltan Arany of Harvard Medical School said. "Being able to increase blood vessel density could help wound healing and even prevent amputations in millions of patients with diabetes and vascular disease of the limbs."
The study is published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
