Effects of the Duration of Highly Intensive Exercise on Lymphocyte Cell Death in Rats

Abstract

The time-dependent effects of highly intensive exercise on the hematological properties of leukocytes, as well as CD4 + and CD8 + level changes as T-lymphocyte activation subsets and the cell death of lymphocytes in rats were studied in this research. Twenty, 60, and 120 min of highly intensive exercise was performed daily for 8 weeks. Total leukocyte counts in the blood of rats exercising for 20 min were elevated; they then decreased to less than the level of the control group up to 120 min. The patterns of lymphocyte level changes were directly influenced by exercise duration and the extents of alteration were similar to the total leukocytes counts. The levels of CD4 + and CD8 + in the blood of the exercising rats were not statistically different even when the exercise was continued for 120 min; thus, the exercise did not affect T-lymphocyte activation. Early-and late-stage lymphocyte apoptosis was not affected by the length of exercise, except that late-phase apoptosis was slightly increased at 120 min, suggesting that aging processes for lymphocyte apoptosis might be stimulated at that time. As the exercise time became longer, stimulated necrosis of lymphocytes was observed, so damage in lymphocytes and a potential loss of immunity might be presumed. The current observation suggests that long-term, highly intensive exercise might result in a loss of immunity that could be due to the damage of lymphocytes in terms of both their numbers and inflammation-related functions. The results suggest that under highly intensive exercise conditions, more than 20 min of exercise should not be suggested for health care purposes.