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Minuzzi et al EJAP 2017.pdf (362.62 kB)

Lifelong training improves anti-inflammatory environment and maintains the number of regulatory T cells in masters athletes

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posted on 2017-05-11, 10:31 authored by Luciele G. Minuzzi, Luis Rama, Nicolette BishopNicolette Bishop, Fatima Rosado, Antonio Martinho, Artur Paiva, Ana Maria Teixeira
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to quantify and characterize peripheral blood regulatory T cells (Tregs), as well as the IL-10 plasma concentration, in Masters athletes at rest and after an acute exhaustive exercise test. Methods: Eighteen Masters athletes (self-reported training: 24.6 ± 1.83 years; 10.27 ± 0.24 months and 5.45 ± 0.42 h/week per each month trained) and an age-matched control group of ten subjects (that never took part in regular physical training) volunteered for this study. All subjects performed an incremental test to exhaustion on a cycle ergometer. Blood samples were obtained before (Pre), 10 min into recovery (Post), and 1 h after the test (1 h). Results: Absolute numbers of Tregs were similar in both groups at rest. Acute exercise induced a significant increase in absolute numbers of Tregs at Post (0.049 ± 0.021 to 0.056 ± 0.024 × 109/L, P = 0.029 for Masters; 0.048 ± 0.017 to 0.058 ± 0.020 × 109/L, P = 0.037 for control) in both groups. Treg mRNA expression for FoxP3, IL-10, and TGF-β in sorted Tregs was similar throughout the trials in both groups. Masters athletes showed a higher percentage of subjects expressing the FoxP3 (100% for Masters vs. 78% for Controls, P = 0.038) and TGF-β (89% for Masters vs. 56% for Controls, P = 0.002) after exercise and a higher plasma IL-10 concentration (15.390 ± 7.032 for Masters vs. 2.411 ± 1.117 for control P = 0.001, ES = 2.57) at all timepoints. KLRG1 expression in Tregs was unchanged. Conclusion: Our findings showed that Masters athletes have elevated anti-inflammatory markers and maintain the number of Tregs, and may be an adaptive response to lifelong training.

Funding

The study was funded by the Faculty of Sport Sciences and Physical Education, University of Coimbra. In addition, the present manuscript was accomplished with support from CAPES, Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel, Brazil (LGM—Grants Number BEX-1417/13−4). AMT and LR are registered in the unit UID/DTP/04213/2016.

History

School

  • Sport, Exercise and Health Sciences

Published in

European Journal of Applied Physiology

Pages

1 - 10

Citation

MINUZZI, L.G. ... et al, 2017. Lifelong training improves anti-inflammatory environment and maintains the number of regulatory T cells in masters athletes. European Journal of Applied Physiology, 117 (6), pp. 1131–1140.

Publisher

© Springer

Version

  • AM (Accepted Manuscript)

Publisher statement

This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Acceptance date

2017-03-30

Publication date

2017

Notes

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in European Journal of Applied Physiology. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00421-017-3600-6

ISSN

1439-6319

eISSN

1439-6327

Language

  • en

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