Cigarette smoking abolishes ischemic preconditioning-induced augmentation of endothelium-dependent vasodilation.

We have shown recently that repetition of ischemic preconditioning stimulus augments endothelium-dependent vasodilation in forearm circulation of healthy subjects through increases in NO production and the number of circulating progenitor cells under a local condition. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the "late" effect of ischemic preconditioning on endothelial function in smokers. Ischemic preconditioning was induced by upper-limb ischemia 6 times a day for 1 month. We evaluated forearm blood flow responses to acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside before and after ischemic preconditioning stimulus in 15 male smokers (27+/-7 years) and 15 male nonsmokers (26+/-5 years). Forearm blood flow was measured by using a strain-gauge plethysmography. The ischemic preconditioning stimulus resulted in significant increases in the circulating level of circulating progenitor cells from 1029+/-261 to 1232+/-341 mL (P=0.02), cell migration response to vascular endothelial growth factor from 38+/-16 to 52+/-17 per high-power field (P=0.02), and forearm blood flow response to acetylcholine from 25.1+/-5.2 to 32.4+/-6.6 mL/min per 100 mL of tissue (P=0.002) in nonsmokers, but these did not change in the smoker group. The forearm blood flow responses to sodium nitroprusside before and after the ischemic preconditioning stimulus were similar. Intra-arterial infusion of N(G)-monomethyl-l-arginine, an NO synthase inhibitor, completely eliminated the ischemic preconditioning stimulus-induced augmentation of forearm blood flow responses to acetylcholine in nonsmokers. These findings suggest that repetition of ischemic preconditioning stimulus may be a simple, safe, and feasible therapeutic technique for endothelial protection of peripheral vessels. However, smoking abolishes ischemic preconditioning stimulus-induced augmentation of endothelium-dependent vasodilation.