Study highlights:
1. Patients with stable IBD who perform exercise have significantly
fewer flare-ups of disease
2. Relative refractory neutrophils and monocytes were demonstrated in
peripheral blood of IBD patients after prolonged exercise.
3. Increased knowledge on the pathophysiological mechanism on the effect
of exercise on IBD facilitates future therapy to prevent flare-ups.
AbstractRationale Neutrophils and monocytes are key immune effector cells in inflammatory
bowel disease (IBD) that is associated with chronic inflammation in the
gut. Patients with stable IBD who perform exercise have significantly
fewer flare-ups of the disease, but no underlying mechanism has been
identified. Therefore, the aim of this study was to compare the
responsiveness of these innate immune cells after repeated bouts of
prolonged exercise in IBD patients and controls.
Methods Patients with IBD and age- and gender-matched healthy controls were
recruited from a cohort of walkers participating in a 4-day walking
event. Blood analysis was performed at baseline and after 3 days of
walking. Responsiveness to the bacterial/mitochondrial
N-Formylmethionine-leucyl-phenylalanine (fMLF) was tested in
granulocytes and monocytes by measuring the expression of activation
markers after adding this stimulus to whole blood
Results In total 38 participants (54±12 years) were included in this study: 19
walkers with and 19 walkers without IBD. After 3 days of prolonged
exercise, a significant increase in responsiveness to fMLF was observed
in all participants irrespective of disease. However, IBD patients
showed significantly smaller increase in neutrophils (p=0.010; p=0.030;
p=0.010, respectively) and monocytes (p=0.001; p=0.008; p=0.005,
respectively), compared to controls.