To clarify whether the increase in the conduit artery blood flow during dynamic exercise with a small skeletal muscle groups was inhibited by aging, we compared femoral artery blood flow at rest and during the submaximal knee extension exercise (0 W, 10 W, 20 W and 30 W) between older (O group) and young (Y group) males. Absolute blood flow of femoral artery at rest and during exercise at low intensity was smaller in O than Y groups. However, femoral artery blood flow corrected by skeletal muscle mass during exercise at 10~30 W was not attenuated by aging. These results suggested that, during the knee extension exercise within the range of the load intensity that we used in this study, even the older males can maintain the femoral artery blood flow that is equal to young males, in other words, the aging does not inhibit increase of the femoral artery blood flow.
