Effect of Physical Exercise on Some Parameters of Immunity in Conditioned Sportsmen

Abstract

The studies were performed on 20 conditioned cyclists and 19 untrained men. At rest absolute and percent number of neutrophils, eosinophils, and monocytes, neutrophil bactericidal activity, and blood plasma beta-glucuronidase, acid phosphatase, and lactic dehydrogenase (LDH) activities were similar in sportsmen and untrained men, while neutrophil adherence was lowered in sportsmen. Maximal physical exercise induced significant rises in absolute numbers of neutrophils and monocytes in both groups. In sportsmen, adherence of neutrophils and monocytes and neutrophil bactericidal activity significantly decreased under the influence of exercise, while neutrophil phagocytic activity did not change. On the other hand, in untrained men, maximal physical exercise did not induce significant changes in neutrophil and monocyte adherence and bactericidal activity of neutrophils, but their phagocytic activity increased. Blood plasma beta-glucuronidase, acid phosphatase, and LDH activities increased during exercise in both groups. The changes observed tended to normalize during 2-h recovery. The results obtained suggest that intensive physical exercise tends to depress nonspecific immunity, which may render sportsmen more susceptible to infections.

Immune Function and Psychological Factors in Patients With Coronary Heart Disease (I)

“…It was reported that helper T cells decrease and suppressor T cells increase immediately after exercise irrespective of its intensity, but both types of T cells return to the pre-exercise level 2 h after discontinuation of exercise. 15 Hashimoto et al evaluated immune responses in rats in a 7-week training group, an acute exercise group, and a control group and found a decrease in lymphocytes in the acute exercise group and enhanced granulocyte phagocytosis in the training group. 16 Reactivity to ConA was reported to decrease after acute exercise irrespective of its intensity.…”

“…[3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] In recent years, exercise and training have been studied as factors affecting immune responses. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20] We have performed sports rehabilitation for patients with coronary heart disease from the aspect of exercise psychology. As part of studies on the effects, in particular the preventive effects, of exercise and psychological factors on coronary heart disease, the present study evaluated the association between immune responses and psychological factors.…”

Acute exercise and innate immune function

“…Most reports indicate that neutrophil adherence to the endothelium (which is the first stage in diapedesis) is not affected by acute exercise of a moderate (Ortega et al 1993b) or exhausting nature (Lewicki et al 1987, Rodriguez et al 1991, although Lewicki et al (1987) observed an attenuation of this function during acute exercise in trained individuals. Neutrophil adherence at rest has been reported to be lower (Lewicki et al 1987) or unaltered (Ortega et al 1993a) in trained individuals compared with controls.…”

“…Most reports indicate that neutrophil adherence to the endothelium (which is the first stage in diapedesis) is not affected by acute exercise of a moderate (Ortega et al 1993b) or exhausting nature (Lewicki et al 1987, Rodriguez et al 1991, although Lewicki et al (1987) observed an attenuation of this function during acute exercise in trained individuals. Neutrophil adherence at rest has been reported to be lower (Lewicki et al 1987) or unaltered (Ortega et al 1993a) in trained individuals compared with controls. Neutrophil chemotaxis may be enhanced by acute moderate exercise (Ortega et al 1993b) or unchanged by single bouts of exhaustive exercise (Rodriguez et al 1991), while being higher (Ortega et al 1993a) or no different (Hack et al 1992) in trained versus untrained individuals.…”

“…The ability to engulf foreign material has been used to assess neutrophil function in vitro. Most studies indicate that the phagocytic activity of neutrophils is increased during acute exercise (Hack et al 1992, Lewicki et al 1987, Ortega et al 1993b, although others have not reported such enhancement (Gabriel et al 1994, Rodriguez et al 1991. The phagocytic ability of granulocytes, of which most are neutrophils, has been reported to increase in response to 2.5 hours of exercise at 75% VO 2 max (Nieman et al 1998).…”