Differential Th Cell-Related Immune Responses in Young Physically Active Men after an Endurance Effort.

Dorota Kostrzewa-Nowak,Robert Nowak

doi:10.3390/jcm9061795

Abstract

The participation of T cell subsets in the modulation of immunity in athletes triggered by maximal effort was investigated. In total, 80 physically active young men (range 16–20 years) were divided into 5 age groups: 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 years old. They performed efficiency tests on mechanical treadmills until exhaustion. White blood cell (WBC) and lymphocyte (LYM) counts were determined, and the type 1 (Th1), type 2 (Th2) helper T cells, T helper 17 (Th17), and T regulatory (Treg) cell distribution and plasma levels of selected cytokines were analyzed. An increase in WBC and LYM counts after the test and in Th1 and Treg cells after the test and in recovery was observed. There were no changes in Th2 cells. An increase in interleukins (IL): IL-2 and IL-8 was observed. The IL-6 level was altered in all studied groups. IL-17A and interferon gamma (IFN-γ) levels were increased in all studied groups. The mechanism of differential T cell subset activation may be related to athletes’ age. The novel findings of this study are the involvement of Th17 cells in post-effort immune responses and the participation of IL-6 in post-effort and the long-term biological effect of endurance effort.

Highlights

Physical activity (PA) is one of the significant factors that positively modulates the immune system
It is worth noting that the mechanisms related to the involvement of Th1 and Th2 cell subsets appears to be related to participants’ age
An increase in Th2 cell-related cytokines was found, without similar changes in the cell distribution. These findings are related to the pleiotropic role of the studied cytokines and need further evaluation on the gene level to determine whether protein expression is related to an increase in protein production or just a change in extracellular secretion of these molecules

Summary

Introduction

Physical activity (PA) is one of the significant factors that positively modulates the immune system. The mechanisms leading to the modulation of the immune system are well described in the literature [8,9,10,11,12], it seems that sterile inflammation may be crucial when taking the post-workout immunomodulation into account. This phenomenon is known to be a response to a psychological and/or physical stressor capable of causing an innate immune response in the absence of stimulation by a pathogen [13,14]

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