Abstract
BackgroundTai Chi is the Chinese traditional medicine exercise for mind-body health. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) exercise on the proliferative and cytolytic/tumoricidal activities of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in postsurgical non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients.MethodsPatients (n = 27) were randomly divided into the control group (n = 13) and the TCC group (n = 14). TCC group participated in Tai Chi 24-type exercise for 16 weeks, 60-min every time, and three times a week. Peripheral blood was collected and PBMCs isolated before and after the 16-week TCC, PBMC proliferation and co-culture of PBMCs with the NSCLC cell line A549 were performed for proliferation and cell cytolysis assays. Analysis of NKT cells, NK cells, and CD123+ and CD11c + dendritic cells were also performed.Results(1) After 16-week of TCC, cell proliferation increased significantly as compared with the control. (2) PBMCs from the TCC group also demonstrated enhanced cytolytic/oncolytic activity against A549 cells. (3) Significant differences were also found in NK cell percentage at t = 16 weeks, post-pre changes of NKT and DC11c between groups.ConclusionRegular Tai Chi exercise has the promise of enhancing PBMC proliferative and cytolytic activities in NSCLC patients. Our results affirm the value of a future trial with a larger scale and longer duration for cancer survivors.Trial registrationChiCTR-TRC-11001404.
Highlights
Tai Chi is the Chinese traditional medicine exercise for mind-body health
The significant changes of Peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) proliferative capacity were observed in Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) group at t = 16 weeks compared to t = 0 week, optical density (OD) increasing from 0.70 ± 0.28 to 0.92 ± 0.24 (p < 0.05) at 0.5 × (10^6) cell density, and from 1.21 ± 0.23 to 1.66 ± 0.37 (p < 0.001) at 1 × (10^6) cell density; whereas PBMCs from control group did not show any significant difference in proliferation: 0.89 ± 0.26 to 0.99 ± 0.25 (p = 0.284) at 0.5 × (10^6) cell density and 1.33 ± 0.26 to 1.39 ± 0.18 (P = 0.537) at 1 × (10^6) cell density
An independent samples t-test had failed to detect any significant difference in PBMC proliferation between the two groups, even though TCC group demonstrated higher cell proliferation (1.66 ± 0.37) compared to the control group (1.39 ± 0.18) at 1 × (10^6) cell density
Summary
The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of Tai Chi Chuan (TCC) exercise on the proliferative and cytolytic/tumoricidal activities of peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) in postsurgical non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. Exercise has been shown to improve blood immune function in cancer survivors. We recently reported that a 16-week TCC intervention prevented the increase of circulating CD4+ T helper Type 2 (Th2) cells and CD8+ cytotoxic T cells, Type 2 (Tc2) levels, but not of Th1 and Tc1 levels, in NSCLC survivors [10]. [11] reported that peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from NSCLC patients produced more cytokines and higher combined levels of Th1 and Th2 cytokines, with higher level of circulating Tregs and a reduced lymphoid proliferative response. PBMCs from lung cancer patients are clearly different from those obtained from normal donors, and likely reflect the influence of tumors in vivo
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