An easy way to protect endothelial function and improve your circulati

It is not only important to have adequate blood supply to the heart, but also very important to have good blood supply to every organ and tissue in the body.

If we want a healthy muscle skeletal system, we need to have good micro circulation. The small blood vessels, capillaries need to provide oxygen and nutrients and remove waste products.

The microcirculation provides access for oxygenated blood to the tissues linking local blood flow to local metabolic needs (Jacob M., et al., 2016).

The endothelium which is the inner layer of the blood vessels has a protective layer called the glycocalyx.

The endothelium glycocalyx layer found on the surface of endothelial cells creates a barrier between circulating blood and the vessel wall. (Yang H., et al., 2018). This protects the endothelium from being damaged.

Low shear stress and oxidative stress can however in collaboration deteriorate the glycocalyx (Yang H., et al., 2018).

The plant extract berberine has been found to suppress low shear stress, decrease the generation of reactive oxygen species, and also increase nitric oxide production (Yang H., et al., 2019).

These data indicate that berberine has a protective effect against low shear stress-induced hyaluronic acid degradation. Hyaluronic acid is a major component of glycocalyx.

Nitric oxide causes vasodilation (opens the blood vessels) and increase circulation.

References:

Hongfeng Yang 1, Linlin Zhu 1, Yuelin Chao 1, Yue Gu 1, Xiangquan Kong 1, Mingxing Chen 2, Peng Ye 1, Jie Luo 1, Shaoliang Chen 1, Hyaluronidase2 (Hyal2) modulates low shear stress-induced glycocalyx impairment via the LKB1/AMPK/NADPH oxidase-dependent pathway, J Cell Physiol. 2018 Dec;233(12):9701-9715.

Jacob M, Chappell D, Becker BF. Regulation of blood flow and volume exchange across the microcirculation. Crit Care. 2016 Oct 21;20(1):319.

Yang H, Zhu L, Gu Y, Kong X, Yan Liu, Chen M, Xie X, Luo J, Chen S. Berberine inhibits low shear stress-induced glycocalyx degradation via modulating AMPK and p47phox/Hyal2 signal pathway. Eur J Pharmacol. 2019 Aug 5;856:172413.