Effects of Exercise and Zinc Supplementation on Cytokine Release in Young Wrestlers

Abstract

The present study aims to examine the effect of zinc supplementation on the release of some cytokines in young wrestlers actively involved in wrestling. A total of 40 male subjects of the same age group were included in the study: half were wrestlers and the other half were not involved in sports. The subjects were equally divided into four groups and treated during an 8-week period as follows: group 1, zinc-supplemented athletes; group 2, non-supplemented athletes; group 3, zinc-supplemented sedentary subjects, and group 4, non-supplemented sedentary group. Blood samples were taken from each subject at the beginning and at the end of the study period. The serum tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), interleukin-2 (IL-2), and interpheron-γ levels (IFN-γ) were determined using the enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay method. At the beginning of the study, there were no significant differences of the measured parameters between the four study groups. At the end of the study, the levels of TNF-α, IL-2, and IFN-γ were significantly higher in the two zinc-supplemented groups compared to those that did not receive supplementation, regardless of the activity status (p < 0.01).

Effect of a four-week exercise program on the secretion of IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-2 and IL-6 cytokines in elite Taekwondo athletes

“…Suzuki et al (24) reported that there was no increase in the secretion of cytokines following endurance training in athletes, and it was demonstrated in another study that IL-2 levels of exercised rats remained unchanged (25). Similarly, Kara et al (6) noted that exercise did not cause any change in the IL-2 levels of individuals performing wrestling as a sport. The results of these studies are not consistent with the elevated IL-2 levels that were observed after the 4-week Taekwondo training program.…”

“…However, despite its ameliorative effects, exercise (which is also considered to be a controlled catabolic process) leads to the destruction of muscle and even bone tissue, to a certain extent (4,5). Given the mechanisms of immune responses, it can be argued that tissue injury in the skeletal muscle resulting from exercise paves the way for activation of immune reactions (6). However, previous studies indicated that a cytokine response may be observed even after exercise that is not strenuous (7).…”

Effects of pomegranate supplementation on exercise performance and post-exercise recovery in healthy adults: a systematic review

“…Similarly, in resistance trained athletes, Ammar et al (18) observed no effect of POMj on the recovery kinetics of hs-CRP and leucocyte levels 48 h following a weightlifting training session. However, given that hs-CRP better reflects endothelial dysfunction and vascular inflammation than muscular function (26) , future studies would benefit from evaluating the effect of POM supplementation on the profiles of cytokines such as TNF or IL-6 which better relate to exercise performance (66) .…”

Zinc and Regulation of Inflammatory Cytokines: Implications for Cardiometabolic Disease

“…Human intervention studies measuring the effects of zinc on plasma cytokine concentrations or cytokine production in primary human blood cells are shown in Table 2 [34,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44]. Supplementation with ≥45 mg zinc/day has been reported to decrease ex vivo generated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokine mRNA and proteins in stimulated mononuclear cells [34,35,37].…”