Exercise immunology: integration and regulation

doi:10.1016/S0167-5699(98)01255-9

Immunology Today

Volume 19, Issue 5, 1 May 1998, Pages 204-206

Immunology Today

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0167-5699(98)01255-9 Get rights and content

Abstract

The underlying mechanisms of exercise-induced immune regulation and their clinical significance and exploitation for health were addressed at a recent symposium³.

Section snippets

Salivary IgA predicts infections in athletes

Following prolonged, intense exercise the number of lymphocytes in the blood is depressed, and both natural immunity and mucosal immunity are impaired2, 3, 4. As discussed by D. Pyne (Canberra), although significant suppression in the concentration and functional activity of immune parameters is observed following intense exercise, such changes may not necessarily be associated with the higher incidence of infections and illness described in athletes[5]. In other words, there has been a lack of

Vaccination response to exercise

The use of in vivo immunological methods may provide a tool to study clinically relevant immune changes in response to exercise. In a study including 28 athletes, the antibody response to hepatitis A vaccine was suppressed by two-week intense training (T. Furian, Stuttgart). Data from other studies, however, are not consistent with this result. In a study by Gleeson, 16 elite swimmers were orally immunized against Salmonella typhi on completion of an intensive three-week, high-altitude training

Neuroendocrinological regulation

Kapasi hypothesized that since serum concentrations of endogenous opioids increase in response to acute exercise and as opioids in moderate doses enhance antibody responses, chronic exercise training may enhance antibody responses via endogenous opioids. He showed that exercising mice implanted with the opioid antagonist, naltrexone, experienced a depression of the secondary antibody response when compared with controls.

In addition, exercise enhances endogenous β-endorphin levels in

Nutritional aspects

There is growing evidence that for several hours after heavy exertion, several components of both the innate and adaptive immune system exhibit suppressed function2, 3, 4. At the same time, plasma pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines are elevated—in particular, interleukin 6 (IL-6) and IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1ra). Some attempts have been made through nutritional means to attenuate immune changes following intensive exercise. Previously, carbohydrate versus water ingestion during prolonged

Malignancy

Although previous studies have determined that exercise can influence NK-cell and macrophage cytotoxic responses to tumour cells[9], none has examined the role of cytotoxic T cells. J. Woods (Urbana, IL) randomized female BALB/c (H-2^k) mice to moderate exercise training or control groups in a 13-week study. At the end of the training period, the animals were inoculated with allogeneic EL-4 lymphoma cells (H-2^b). The trained mice were further randomized into three groups: continuation of

Exercise—a model of the acute-phase response?

It has been suggested that the cytokine response to strenuous exercise can be viewed as a model of the cytokine response to sepsis and trauma[10]. Two studies were performed to reveal in detail the changes over time of cytokine concentrations in response to strenuous exercise (K. Ostrowski and B.K. Pedersen, Copenhagen). In one study, ten athletes performed 2.5 h treadmill running; in the second study 20 athletes participated in a marathon. The peak concentration of IL-6 was found immediately

Future directions in exercise immunology

L. Mackinnon (Brisbane) outlined four major future directions for researchers involved in exercise immunology. (1) Are athletes immunocompromised? Long-term prospective studies are needed to understand the relationship between infection, training variables and immune parameters. (2) Is downregulation of nonspecific immunity beneficial or harmful? Neutrophils appear to be downregulated by intense exercise, and this may alter resistance to illness. However, neutrophils are mediators of tissue

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the active participation of all congress delegates and regret that space constraints do not permit a full discussion of all the presentations.

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Regular physical exercise has been recognized as a potent modulator of immune function, with its effects including enhanced immune surveillance, reduced inflammation, and improved overall health. While strong evidence exists that physical exercise affects the specific expression and activity of non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) also involved in immune system regulation, heterogeneity in individual study designs and analyzed exercise protocols exists, and a condensed list of functional, exercise-dependent ncRNAs with known targets in the immune system is missing from the literature. A systematic review and qualitative analysis was used to identify and categorize ncRNAs participating in immune modulation by physical exercise. Two combined approaches were used: (a) a systematic literature search for “ncRNA and exercise immunology”, (b) and a database search for microRNAs (miRNAs) (miRTarBase and DIANA-Tarbase v8) aligned with known target genes in the immune system based on the Reactome database, combined with a systematic literature search for “ncRNA and exercise”. Literature searches were based on PubMed, Web of Science, and SPORTdiscus; and miRNA databases were filtered for targets validated by in vitro experimental data. Studies were eligible if they reported on exercise-based interventions in healthy humans. After duplicate removal, 95 studies were included reporting on 164 miRNAs, which were used for the qualitative synthesis. Six studies reporting on long-noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) or circular RNAs were also identified. Results were analyzed using ordering tables that included exercise modality (endurance/ resistance exercise), acute or chronic interventions, as well as the consistency in reported change between studies. Evaluation criteria were defined as “validated” with 100% of ≥3 independent studies showing identical direction of regulation, “plausible” (≥80%), or “suggestive” (≥70%). For resistance exercise, upregulation of miR-206 was validated while downregulation of miR-133a appeared plausible. For endurance exercise, 15 miRNAs were categorized as validated, with 12 miRNAs being consistently elevated and 3 miRNAs being downregulated, most of them after acute exercise training. In conclusion, our approach provides evidence that miRNAs play a major role in exercise-induced effects on the innate and adaptive immune system by targeting different pathways affecting immune cell distribution, function, and trafficking as well as production of (anti-)inflammatory cytokines. miRNAs miR-15, miR-29c, miR-30a, miR-142/3, miR-181a, and miR-338 emerged as key players in mediating the immunomodulatory effects of exercise predominantly after acute bouts of endurance exercise.
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