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Published on: July 5, 2017
Load-Specific Inflammation Mediating Effects of Resistance Training in Older Persons
Louis Nuvagah Forti1, Evelien Van Roie2, Rose Njemini1
1Department of Gerontology, Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium; Frailty in Aging Research (FRIA) Group, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium.
Background:
Little is known about the effects of resistance training (RT) on circulating cytokines in older adults. Also, dose-response relationships remain unclear. This study investigated the impact of RT at different external loads on circulating inflammatory mediators in older community-dwelling individuals.
Methods:
Fifty-six community-dwelling older (68 ± 5 years) volunteers were randomized to 12 weeks of supervised RT (×3/week) at either high-resistance training [8 males, 10 females, 2 × 10-15 repetitions at 80% 1 repetition maximum (RM)], low-resistance training (9 males, 10 females, 1 × 80-100 repetitions at 20% 1 RM), or mixed low-resistance training (9 males, 10 females, 1 × 60 repetitions at 20% 1 RM followed by 1 × 10-20 repetitions at 40% 1 RM). Serum was available from 51 out of 56 participants at baseline and after 12 weeks for determination of interleukin (IL)-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-1β, soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor (sTNFR)1, granulocyte macrophage colony-stimulating factor, and IL-1 receptor antagonist (ra).
Results:
Twelve weeks of RT significantly increased sTNFR1 from 2.48 ± 0.57 ng/mL to 2.58 ± 0.59 ng/mL (overall time-effect P = .033) and Log IL-8 from 0.38 ± 0.18 pg/mL to 0.53 ± 0.32 pg/mL (overall time-effect P = .007). No time X group interaction (P = .916) was observed. In males of the high-resistance training group, there was an increase in Log IL-8 (from 0.45 ± 0.16 pg/mL to 0.68 ± 0.19 pg/mL; P = .005) and IL-1ra (from 68.60 ± 24.12 pg/mL to 79.56 ± 29.07 pg/mL; P = .007). No significant changes were found for the other markers.
Conclusions:
Our results show that 12 weeks of supervised RT induced an overall significant increase of circulating IL-8 and sTNFR1, independently from the external load applied. We suggest that exercising until volitional fatigue is the main trigger for exercise-induced responses. However, training at high external load also increased anti-inflammatory IL-1ra in male participants, which might be beneficial in combating low-grade inflammation.
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