on exercise and immunity, and age

[Guest guest]

A few of the more recent articles. Humoral immunity includes B-cells, cellular immunity includes T-cells. My primitive definitions: T-cells attack the foreign invaders, B-cells release anti-bodies that attach to and neutralize invaders. (Please correct if that is way off.)

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first, in general and not dealing with age:

Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2003 Jul 12;147(28):1347-51.

[The effects of physical exercise on the immune system]

Jeurissen A, Bossuyt X, Ceuppens JL, Hespel P.

PMID: 12892009

Review: "...After strenuous exercise, athletes pass through a period of impaired immune resistance. During this period, athletes are theoretically more susceptible to upper respiratory tract infections... [but] Moderate exercise seems to have a beneficial effect on the immune function, which could protect against upper respiratory tract infections. Exercise has effects on both the humoral and the cellular immune system...Glutamine and vitamin C could, hypothetically, prevent the negative effects of strenuous exercise on the immune function..."

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next, in aged, with apparently mixed results [my highlighting]:

Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2002 Apr;959:117-27.

Can exercise training improve immune function in the aged?

Woods JA, Lowder TW, Keylock KT.

PMID: 11976191

Review: "In general, cross-sectional studies examining highly active elderly have demonstrated improved in vitro T cell responses... [and] several animal studies... have shown improved splenic T cell responses in vitro. Unfortunately, human prospective studies have failed to demonstrate consistent improvements." But then, the authors state cautions about the small number of subjects, etc. in the latter studies.

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a single bout of exercise:

Schweiz Rundsch Med Prax. 2002 Jan 30;91(5):153-8.

[Effect of aerobic endurance exercise on immune function in elderly athletes]

Bauer T, Weisser B.

PMID: 11865773

"Since human immune function undergoes adverse changes with aging, we investigated in the present study whether submaximal, aerobic exercise induces changes in immune function in elderly subject... there was a highly significant increase in leukocyte count both immediately and 4 hours after exercise... might indicate that the effect of a single bout of aerobic exercise on immune function depends on the intensity and duration of exercise relative to the level of fitness in elderly subjects." Some measures of immunity showed little or no improvement. This study does not deal with chronic exercise.

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finally, referrring to differences between humoral and cellular immunity:

Immunol Allergy Clin North Am. 2003 Feb;23(1):1-13.

Pathways to a robust immune response in the elderly.

Pawelec G, Ouyang Q, Wagner W, Biol D, Wikby A

PMID: 12645875

Review: "Circumstantial evidence suggests that infectious disease is the major cause of morbidity and mortality in the elderly... innate and humoral immunity seem to be relatively unaffected by aging [but] the T-cell compartment shows marked age-associated alteration..."

[my interpretation, T-cells but not B-cells are affected negatively by age.]

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Ken