Meningitis Research Today is a free monthly online journal that collates and summarizes the latest research about Meningitis, including details on viral, bacterial, spinal, symptoms, treatment. | ||||||||
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Suppression of viral specific primary T-cell response following intense physical exercise in young but not old mice.Kapasi ZF, McRae ML, Ahmed R Dept. of Rehabilitation Medicine, Division of Physical Therapy, Emory Univ. School of Medicine, 1441 Clifton Road, N.E., Atlanta, GA 30322, USA. zkapasi@emory.edu Intense exercise to exhaustion leads to increased susceptibility and severity of infections. T cells play an essential role in control of viral infections. Whereas immune suppression is considered as a likely mechanism for exhaustive exercise-induced susceptibility to infection, we know little about viral-specific T-cell response following exhaustive exercise in young or old mice. In this study, one group of female young (10-12 wk) and old (22-24 mo) C57BL/6 mice was exposed to a single bout of intense exercise to exhaustion and immediately infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV). Eight days later, at the peak of expansion phase of T-cell response, we used tetramers of MHC class I molecules containing viral peptides to directly visualize antigen-specific CD8 T cells and a sensitive functional assay measuring interferon-gamma production at the single-cell level to quantitate the CD8 and CD4 T-cell response. To evaluate the impact of intense exercise during both the initiation and evolution of the expansion phase of the T-cell response, a second group of young and old mice continued their daily bouts of intense exercise to exhaustion over the next 8 days. Our data show that, in young mice, LCMV infection following exhaustive exercise leads to suppression of LCMV-specific CD8 and CD4 T-cell responses, and this suppression effect occurs at the initiation of the expansion phase of viral-specific T cells. However, in old mice, unlike young mice, exhaustive exercise does not cause suppression of LCMV-specific T-cell responses. Published 14 January 2005 in J Appl Physiol, 98(2): 663-71.
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