Sustained sitting attenuates cutaneous reactive hyperemia while improving venoarteriolar reflex, and alternating ambient exposure to cool and heat does not modulate these responses.

PURPOSE: Impaired skin microcirculation is considered an early marker of cardiovascular disease. Elevated sedentary behavior can impair vascular function and increase cardiovascular risk. However, whether prolonged sitting induces skin microvascular dysfunction remains uncertain, and no effective intervention has been identified.

METHODS: Twelve young adults (six women) sat for 120 min wherein they were exposed to 18 °C for ≥ 5 min, followed by exposure to 35 °C for ≥ 5 min, with this sequence repeated twice. Temperature transitions lasted ≥ 20 min. On separate day, during the control trial, participants were exposed to thermoneutral ambient temperature of 25 °C for 120 min. Cutaneous blood flow was continuously recorded throughout the experiment. Post-occlusive reactive hyperemia (PORH) was assessed by measuring increases in cutaneous blood flow following arterial occlusion. Venoarteriolar reflex (VAR) was elicited by venous occlusion. These occlusions were conducted at the upper arm pre- and post-intervention.

RESULTS: Cutaneous blood flow gradually decreased in the control trial, whereas it declined during cool exposure and remained unchanged from pre-exposure levels during heat exposure. Baseline cutaneous blood flow was similar between the two trials at pre- and post-intervention. PORH decreased (time effect: p = 0.047), whereas VAR (%baseline) improved (time effect: p = 0.018) following 120 min sitting in both trials, with no between-trial differences [interaction: p = 0.990 (PORH) and 0.869 (VAR)].

CONCLUSION: (1) Prolonged sitting decreased cutaneous PORH, while unexpectedly improving VAR, and (2) these responses were not modulated by cutaneous blood flow fluctuations induced by alternate ambient exposure to cool and heat.