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Updated: May 18, 2026

Induction and Assessment of Exertional Skeletal Muscle Damage in Humans
Published on: December 11, 2016
Cytokines and cellular inflammatory sequence in non-athletes after prolonged exercise
J Ostapiuk-Karolczuk1, A Zembron-Lacny, M Naczk
1Department of Sport Medicine and Biochemistry, Faculty of Physical Culture Gorzow Wlkp, University of Physical Education, Poznan, Poland. joanna.ostapiuk@gmail.com.
Aim:
The goal of the study was to clarify the sequence of cytokines and inflammatory cells in non-athletes performed an intense running exercise.
Methods:
Sixteen young healthy men participated in the exercise trial that involved 90-min run at 65% VO2max.
Results:
The plasma concentrations of anti-inflammatory cytokines IL-4, IL-6 and IL-10 increased immediately after exercise simultaneously with number of white blood cells. Between IL-6 and IL-10, and neutrophils the relationships were observed. The correlation value for IL-6 and neutrophils was 0.775 whereas for IL-10 and neutrophils was 0.506. The proinflammatory cytokines IL-1β and TNFα were detected at 6 h after exercise and moderately correlated with monocytes count. The high level of proinflammatory cytokines, monocytes and creatine kinase (CK) remained until 48 h rest. The CK activity significantly correlated with IL-1β (r=0.578) and TNFα (r=0.452), and also with monocytes count (r=0.439).
Conclusion:
The results have shown that: 1) exercise induces anti-inflammatory cytokines production first and then proinflammatory cytokines; and 2) prolonged proinflammatory response is closely related with muscle damage present.
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