Exercise Reverses Mental Stress–Induced Vascular Inflammation and Builds Stress Resilience

Mental stress is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, yet no targeted therapies exist to reduce stress-related vascular risk. We investigated whether physical activity mitigates the adverse cardiovascular effects of acute mental stress and explored the underlying mechanisms. Sedentary and physically active mice, following 6 weeks of voluntary treadmill running, were exposed to acute mental stress, and inflammatory responses within atherosclerotic plaques were assessed. Physically active mice exhibited markedly reduced stress-induced leukocyte infiltration into plaques compared with sedentary mice. This protective effect was associated with blunted stress-induced norepinephrine release and reduced endothelial activation, reflected by lower expression of adhesion molecules and chemokines. To assess translational relevance, physically active and inactive human participants were exposed to acute stress, revealing that physical activity similarly attenuated stress-induced leukocyte redistribution. These findings demonstrate that physical activity counteracts stress-induced vascular inflammation and highlight its potential as a preventive and therapeutic strategy to reduce stress-related cardiovascular risk.

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Publication Details

Journal
JACC Basic to Translational Science
Published
2026-04-22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jacbts.2026.101536
Primary Topic
Tryptophan and brain disorders
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Exercise Reverses Mental Stress–Induced Vascular Inflammation and Builds Stress Resilience

Ulrike Meyer-Lindemann, Carina Mauersberger, Hendrik B. Sager, Thorsten Kessler et al.
JACC Basic to Translational Science
Tryptophan and brain disorders
article

Exercise Reverses Mental Stress–Induced Vascular Inflammation and Builds Stress Resilience

Ulrike Meyer-Lindemann, Carina Mauersberger, Hendrik B. Sager, Thorsten Kessler, Egija Berga-Švītiņa, Svenja Rapelius, M. Amin Sharifi, Lars Mäegdefessel, Henning Wackerhage, Sabine Steffens, Cameron S. McAlpine, Julia Hinterdobler, Michael Hristov, Karina Borbil, Aldo Moggio, Marius Schwab, Moritz von Scheidt, Baiba Vilne, Christian Weber, Tan An Dang, Viktoria Schories, Raphael Rottenkolber, Rui Shen, Karsten Köhler, Heribert Schunkert
article en

Abstract

Mental stress is a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease, yet no targeted therapies exist to reduce stress-related vascular risk. We investigated whether physical activity mitigates the adverse cardiovascular effects of acute mental stress and explored the underlying mechanisms. Sedentary and physically active mice, following 6 weeks of voluntary treadmill running, were exposed to acute mental stress, and inflammatory responses within atherosclerotic plaques were assessed. Physically active mice exhibited markedly reduced stress-induced leukocyte infiltration into plaques compared with sedentary mice. This protective effect was associated with blunted stress-induced norepinephrine release and reduced endothelial activation, reflected by lower expression of adhesion molecules and chemokines. To assess translational relevance, physically active and inactive human participants were exposed to acute stress, revealing that physical activity similarly attenuated stress-induced leukocyte redistribution. These findings demonstrate that physical activity counteracts stress-induced vascular inflammation and highlight its potential as a preventive and therapeutic strategy to reduce stress-related cardiovascular risk.

JACC Basic to Translational ScienceVol. 11(5)
Tumaini University (TZ), Munich Cluster for Systems Neurology (DE), Riga Stradiņš University (LV), German Centre for Cardiovascular Research (DE), Nutrition Sciences (Belgium) (BE), Deutsches Herzzentrum München (DE), Technical University of Munich (DE), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (DE), Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (US)
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Else Kröner-Fresenius-Stiftung, European Research Council
Climate action
Openalex Percentile: Top 17%
Tryptophan and brain disorders
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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