Impact of aerobic exercise on levels of IL‐4 and IL‐10: results from two randomized intervention trials

Abstract

The mechanisms whereby regular exercise reduces chronic inflammation remain unclear. We investigated whether regular aerobic exercise alters basal levels of interleukin (IL)‐10 and IL‐4 in two randomized trials of physical activity. The Alberta Physical Activity and Breast Cancer Prevention Trial (ALPHA, n = 320) and the Breast Cancer and Exercise Trial in Alberta (BETA, n = 400) were two‐center, two‐armed randomized trials in inactive, healthy, postmenopausal women. Both trials included an exercise intervention prescribed five times/week and no dietary changes. In ALPHA, the exercise group was prescribed 225 min/week versus no activity in the controls. BETA examined dose‐response effects comparing 300 (HIGH) versus 150 (MODERATE) min/week. Plasma concentrations of IL‐10 and IL‐4 were measured at baseline, 6, and 12 months. Intention‐to‐treat (ITT) analysis was performed using linear mixed models adjusted for baseline biomarker concentrations. Circulating anti‐inflammatory cytokine levels decreased among all groups, with percent change ranging from −3.4% (controls) to −8.2% (HIGH) for IL‐4 and −1.6% (controls) to −7.5% (HIGH) for IL‐10. No significant group differences were found for IL‐4 (ALPHA P = 0.54; BETA P = 0.32) or IL‐10 (ALPHA P = 0.84; BETA P = 0.68). Some evidence for moderation of the effect of exercise by baseline characteristics was found for IL‐10 but not for IL‐4. Results from these two large randomized aerobic exercise intervention trials suggest that aerobic exercise does not alter IL‐10 or IL‐4 in a manner consistent with chronic disease and cancer prevention.

Effect of Aerobic Exercise on Inflammatory Markers in Healthy Middle-Aged and Older Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

“…After deleting duplicates, two reviewers (PTQ and RX) screened titles and abstracts and excluded unrelated records. Finally, 122 full-text articles were examined for eligibility, and 12 studies met the inclusion criteria (Bergström et al, 2009; Muscari et al, 2010; Tartibian et al, 2011, 2015; Friedenreich et al, 2012; Irwin and Olmstead, 2012; Nishida et al, 2015; Abdollahpour et al, 2016; Alghadir et al, 2016; Conroy et al, 2016; Sbardelotto et al, 2017; Mohammadi et al, 2018). One of these 12 studies (Sbardelotto et al, 2017) was excluded, as data remained unavailable, despite attempts to contact the original author.…”

“…A total of 11 RCTs involving 1,250 participants (188 males and 1,062 females, age range 40–95 years) were included in the review. The styles of aerobic exercise utilized in the intervention groups were diverse, involving Tai Chi (Irwin and Olmstead, 2012), treadmill (Mohammadi et al, 2018), bench step exercises (Nishida et al, 2015), and multicomponent aerobic exercises (Bergström et al, 2009; Muscari et al, 2010; Tartibian et al, 2011, 2015; Alghadir et al, 2016); three studies (Friedenreich et al, 2012; Abdollahpour et al, 2016; Conroy et al, 2016) did not describe a specific exercise style. The duration of the exercise phase in the included studies ranged from 2 to 12 months.…”

“…The frequency of exercise varied from two to five sessions weekly, with each session lasting 20–90 min. Of the 11 studies, 8 assessed exercise intensity through the heart rate reserve of 45–80% of maximum heart rate (Muscari et al, 2010; Tartibian et al, 2011, 2015; Friedenreich et al, 2012; Abdollahpour et al, 2016; Alghadir et al, 2016; Conroy et al, 2016; Mohammadi et al, 2018). The remaining studies used the following strategies: (1) “at least 95% at training intensity level 3–4 (1–3 walks and 1–2 aerobic exercise/week)” (Bergström et al, 2009); (2) “moderate intensity” (Irwin and Olmstead, 2012); and (3) “an intensity of lactate threshold” (Nishida et al, 2015).…”

Plasma Cytokine Levels in Fibromyalgia and Their Response to 15 Weeks of Progressive Resistance Exercise or Relaxation Therapy

“…Therefore, the increase of IL-1ra after the interventions could perhaps indicate that the resistance exercise was of high enough intensity to increase its production. Results from two large randomized aerobic exercise intervention trials suggest that aerobic exercise does not alter IL-10 or IL-4 [ 63 ], which if so may explain why IL-1ra was the only anti-inflammatory cytokine that had increased. However, there were no changes in proinflammatory cytokines.…”

Cytokine Modulation in Breast Cancer Patients Undergoing Radiotherapy: A Revision of the Most Recent Studies

“…A similar variability of results is also found for the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 for BC patients, although in other cancers, according to a meta-analysis of 21 studies [63], this IL has been reported to be associated with worse outcome. In addition, and in contrast to IL-6, IL-10 is not modulated in BC patients by physical exercise [64].…”