PURPOSE This study investigated the effect of muscle stretching during warm-up on the risk of exercise-related injury. METHODS 1538 male army recruits were randomly allocated to stretch or control groups. During the ensuing 12 wk of training, both groups performed active warm-up exercises before physical training sessions. In addition, the stretch group performed one 20-s static stretch under...

Hemodynamic forces on vasculature profoundly influence atherogenesis. We examined the effect of stretch force on the oxidation of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) by rat aortic smooth muscle cells (RASM) and superoxide production. Stretch force was imposed on RASM cultured on deformable dishes by stretching the dishes. Incubation of native LDL with static RASM for 24 h resulted in LDL oxidation as...

Vlahakis, Nicholas E., Mark A. Schroeder, Andrew H. Limper, and Rolf D. Hubmayr. Stretch induces cytokine release by alveolar epithelial cells in vitro. Am. J. Physiol. 277 (Lung Cell. Mol. Physiol. 21): L167–L173, 1999.—Mechanical ventilation can injure the lung, causing edema and alveolar inflammation. Interleukin-8 (IL-8) plays an important role in this inflammatory response. We postulated t...

QUESTION Does static stretch positioning combined with simultaneous neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES) in the subacute phase after stroke have beneficial effects on basic arm body functions and activities? DESIGN Multicentre randomised trial with concealed allocation, assessor blinding, and intention-to-treat analysis. PARTICIPANTS Forty-six people in the subacute phase after strok...

Feedback regulation by activation of mechanosensitive afferents in the exercising muscle causes the cardiovascular and sympathetic nerve responses, which follow tension development and are almost identical between static contraction and passive stretch. The precise location of the mechanoreceptors contributing to the exercise pressor reflex, however, remained unknown. To test the hypothesis tha...

We utilized an in vitro adult mouse extensor digitorum longus (EDL) nerve-attached preparation to characterize the responses of muscle spindle afferents to ramp-and-hold stretch and sinusoidal vibratory stimuli. Responses were measured at both room (24°C) and muscle body temperature (34°C). Muscle spindle afferent static firing frequencies increased linearly in response to increasing stretch le...

Vascular endothelial cells are constantly exposed to mechanical forces resulting from blood flow and transmural pressure. The goal of this study was to determine whether mechanical stimulation alters the properties of endothelial voltage-gated K+ channels. Cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (CMECs) were isolated from rat ventricular muscle and cultured on thin sheets of silastic membranes....

BACKGROUND Keratinocyte (KC) migration in re-epithelization is crucial in repairing injured skin. But the mechanisms of how mechanical stimuli regulate the migration of keratinocytes have been poorly understood. METHODS Human immortalized keratinocyte HaCaT cells were co-cultured with skin fibroblasts on PDMS membranes and transferred to the static stretch device developed in-house for additi...

Abstract The so-called “stretch-induced force deficit” is known from a large amount of research. There are many theories trying to explain the stretch-induced deficit and increases in range motion (ROM) which all offer stretch training-specific explanation. However, when performing commonly used strength training session, reduced maximum (MSt) capacity can be assumed as well. Based on this, aim...

Endothelium-derived hyperpolarizing factor (EDHF) mediates NO/prostacyclin-independent relaxation in the coronary circulation. Because hemodynamic stimuli modulate endothelial gene expression and because coronary arteries are subjected to pronounced variations in vessel distension, we determined the effects of cyclic stretch on the expression and activity of the coronary EDHF synthase/cytochrom...