Dusek, J

Fyfe-Johnson, A

Taylor, D

Zierold, C

BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine

English

PubMed

A Fyfe-Johnson

D Taylor

C Zierold

J Dusek

Crossref

OA04.01. Effects of relaxation response intervention on endogenous progenitor cells in a hypertensive population

Springer - Publisher Connector

ORAL PRESENTATION Open Access
OA04.01. Effects of relaxation response
intervention on endogenous progenitor cells in a
hypertensive population
A Fyfe-Johnson1*, D Taylor2, C Zierold2, J Dusek1
From International Research Congress on Integrative Medicine and Health 2012
Portland, Oregon, USA. 15-18 May 2012
Purpose
To examine the impact of a relaxation response inter-
vention on endogenous progenitor cell populations in a
systolic hypertension population.
Methods
These ancillary data are an extension of a current study
investigating the impact of a relaxation response medita-
tion (RR) in a systolic hypertension population. Data
were collected from 15 subjects with systolic hyperten-
sion: before and after an 8-week manualized RR medita-
tion intervention, and compared to subjects receiving
health education. Primary outcomes were pre and post-
progenitor cell populations measured by flow cytometry
(FACScan). After lysis and processing, cell number and
viability were determined using an automated Guava
ViaCount assay counter, Millipore. FACScan raw data
were collected using LSRII Cytometer, BD Biosciences.
Paired T-tests were used to test for significant differ-
ences in mean pre and post progenitor cell changes.
Cell surface markers of interest were CD45, CD34,
CD31, AC133, CXCR4, and VEGFR2.
Results
Progenitor cells offer the potential to be a meaningful
outcome measure for integrative medicine, and are spe-
cifically relevant to cardiovascular disease. Arterial repair
has powerful clinical applications; particularly for hyper-
tension. Relative to health education control, we found a
marked increase in endogenous progenitor cells expres-
sing CD45, CD34, CD31, CXCR4, and VEGFR2 (p<0.01)
after 8 weeks of RR meditation. The largest increase was
seen in the CD34 subpopulation (40.1%, p<0.05). A sig-
nificant decrease was shown in cells expressing AC133
(61.1%, p<0.05). In concordance with an increase in the
CD34 subpopulation, these data suggest that increases
in progenitor cells are evident in the middle of the dif-
ferentiation process and offer a promising signal for the
prospect of arterial repair with mind/body interventions.
Conclusion
Based on preliminary data, RR meditation appears to
increase populations of endogenous progenitor cells in
patients with systolic hypertension. These findings pro-
vide incentive to further investigate endogenous pro-
genitor cells as a novel outcome measure for mind/body
therapies.
Author details
1Penny George Inst. for Health & Healing, ANW, Allina Health, Minneapolis,
USA. 2Center for Cardiovascular Repair, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis,
USA.
Published: 12 June 2012
doi:10.1186/1472-6882-12-S1-O13
Cite this article as: Fyfe-Johnson et al.: OA04.01. Effects of relaxation
response intervention on endogenous progenitor cells in a
hypertensive population. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine
2012 12(Suppl 1):O13.
1Penny George Inst. for Health & Healing, ANW, Allina Health, Minneapolis,
USA
Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Fyfe-Johnson et al. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine 2012, 12(Suppl 1):O13
http://www.biomedcentral.com/1472-6882/12/S1/O13
© 2012 Fyfe-Johnson et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and
reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.


http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?artid=3373479

OA04.01. Effects of relaxation response intervention on endogenous progenitor cells in a hypertensive population

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