Abstract
Purpose
Long-term training influence on athletes’ immune cell response to acute exercise has been poorly studied, despite the complexity of both chronic and acute adaptations induced by training. The purpose of the study is to study the influence of a 4-month swimming training cycle on the immune cell response to a high-intensity training session, during 24 h of recovery, considering sex, maturity, and age group.
Methods
Forty-three swimmers (16 females, 14.4 ± 1.1 years; 27 males, 16.2 ± 2.0) performed a standardized high-intensity session, after the main competition of the first (M1), and second (M2) macrocycles. Blood samples were collected before (Pre), immediately after (Post), 2 h after (Post2h) and 24 h after (Post24h) exercise. Haemogram and lymphocytes subsets were assessed by an automatic cell counter and by flow cytometry, respectively. Subjects were grouped according to sex, competitive age groups, or pubertal Tanner stages. Results express the percentage of relative differences from Pre to Post, Post2h and Post24h. Upper respiratory symptoms (URS) and training load were quantified.
Results
At M2, we observed smaller increases of leukocytes (M1: 14.0 ± 36.3/M2: 2.33 ± 23.0%) and neutrophils (M1: 57.1 ± 71.6/M2: 38.9 ± 49.9%) at Post; and less efficient recoveries of total lymphocytes (M1: − 22.0 ± 20.1/M2: − 30.0 ± 18.6%) and CD19+ (M1: 4.09 ± 31.1/M2: − 19.1 ± 24.4%) at Post2h. At Post2h, the increment of CD4+/CD8+ was smaller in youth (M1: 21.5 ± 16.0/M2: 9.23 ± 21.4%), and bigger in seniors (M1: 3.68 ± 9.21/M2: 23.2 ± 15.0%); and at Post24h late pubertal swimmers’ CD16+56+ recovered less efficiently (M1: − 0.66 ± 34.6/M2: − 20.5 ± 34.2%).
Conclusions
The training cycle induced an attenuated immune change immediately after exercise and a less efficient recovery of total lymphocytes, involving an accentuated CD19+ decrease. The concomitant higher URS frequency suggests a potential immune depression and a longer interval of susceptibility to infection.
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Abbreviations
- %FM:
-
Fat mass percentage
- ANOVA:
-
Analysis of variance
- ATS:
-
ANOVA-type statistic
- AUL:
-
Arbitrary units of load
- BM:
-
Body mass
- BMI:
-
Body mass index
- CD:
-
Cluster of differentiation
- CIPER:
-
Interdisciplinary center for the study of human performance
- EDTA:
-
Ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid
- FFM:
-
Free fat mass
- HR:
-
Heart rate
- INSA:
-
National Health Institute Doutor Ricardo Jorge
- M1:
-
First moment of evaluation
- M2:
-
Second moment of evaluation
- MATS:
-
Modified ANOVA-type statistic
- NK:
-
Natural killer
- Post:
-
Immediately after exercise
- Post 24h:
-
24 h after exercise
- Post 2h:
-
2 h after exercise
- Pre:
-
Before exercise
- RBC:
-
Red blood cells
- SD:
-
Standard deviation
- URS:
-
Upper respiratory symptoms
- WBC:
-
White blood cells
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Acknowledgements
We would like to express our gratitude to the athletes for their time and effort, swimming teams for making both their infrastructures and specialized coaches and staff available for the study. We also thank Maria T. Seixas, Marta Alvim and Mafalda Bourbon from Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge for their help in the assessment of the biochemical parameters. José Morgado, and Catarina N. Matias and Joana Reis were supported by a scholarship from the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/48211/2008, and SFRH/BD/61520/2009 and SFRH/BPD/84315/2012, respectively) and the study was financed by the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Human Performance (CIPER). The results of this study are actual and real, presented clearly, honestly, and without fabrication, falsification, or inappropriate data manipulation.
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Communicated by Fabio Fischetti.
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Morgado, J.P., Monteiro, C.P., Matias, C.N. et al. Long-term swimming training modifies acute immune cell response to a high-intensity session. Eur J Appl Physiol 118, 573–583 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-017-3777-8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-017-3777-8