Effects of Exercise on Immune Function in Young, Adult, and Aged Mice: Increased Survival and a Decrease in Inflammation
Lowder, Thomas W.
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Permalink
https://hdl.handle.net/2142/86382
Description
Title
Effects of Exercise on Immune Function in Young, Adult, and Aged Mice: Increased Survival and a Decrease in Inflammation
Author(s)
Lowder, Thomas W.
Issue Date
2006
Doctoral Committee Chair(s)
Jeff Woods
Department of Study
Kinesiology and Community Health
Discipline
Kinesiology and Community Health
Degree Granting Institution
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Degree Name
Ph.D.
Degree Level
Dissertation
Keyword(s)
Biology, Physiology
Language
eng
Abstract
We have previously shown that moderate exercise for 4 days during a mounting immune response significantly increases survival during influenza virus (A/PR/8/34) infection in mice. We hypothesized that this brief duration of exercise resulted in a decreased level of lung histopathology while altering the immune response from a Th1 (inflammatory) to a Th2 (Anti-inflammatory) response. Adult male Balb/cByJ mice (5-6mo) were inflected with 50uL of A/PR/8/34 influenza virus (40HAU) intranasally under light anesthesia (Isoflurane) and randomized to either an exercise (EX) or sedentary (SED) group. EX mice performed 20-3min of moderate exercise (8-12m/min) on a motorized treadmill 4hr post-infection and then exercised similarly for 4 consecutive days. SED mice were exposed to similar environmental conditions but did not exercise. Mice from both EX and SED groups were sacrificed 1, 3, or 5 days post-infection lungs, mediastinal lymph nodes and spleens were harvested. We found a profound reduction in IFN-gamma in lungs of EX mice when compared to SED mice 3 and 5 days post-infection. There was also a reduction in viral gene mRNA expression, although not at the level of statistical significance (p=0.241). While there were no statistically significant differences in percentage or absolute number of CED8+ cells in the lungs of infected mice, EX mice had significantly fewer cells compared with SED mice 5 days post-infection. Interestingly, we found no observable difference in lung histopathology between groups. These data suggest that moderate exercise shifts the immune response from a Th1 to a Th2 profile in mice infected with influenza virus. This exercise-induced shift in immune response may be responsible for improved survival after influenza virus infection.
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