The effect of exercise on cytokine concentration in equine autologous conditioned serum

Abstract

Background: Autologous conditioned serum (ACS) is a commonly administered intra-articular treatment for the management of osteoarthritis in athletic horses.Objectives: To investigate the influence of exercise on the concentration of cytokines in a non-commercial method of ACS production.Study design: Non-randomised cross over design.Methods: Whole blood was obtained from eight healthy Standardbred horses immediately prior to, 1 h and 24 h following a single bout of exhaustive exercise.Blood was processed using a non-commercial method of ACS production. Fluorescent microsphere immunoassay (FMIA) analysis was performed to quantify Interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), Interleukin-10 (IL-10), Interleukin 1β (IL-1β) and tumour necrosis factor α (TNF-α) concentrations at each time point. Mixed effect repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the preexercise and post-exercise cytokine concentrations. Significance was set at P < 0.05.Results: A reduced concentration of IL-1Ra (median 584.4, IQR 81.9-5098 pg/ml, p = 0.004) and an increased concentration of TNF-α (11.92, 9.28-39.75 pg/ml, P = .05) at 1 h post-exercise were observed when compared with baseline values (IL-Ra 7349, 1272-10 760 pg/ml; TNF . No difference in cytokine concentrations of IL-10 or IL-1β were found between any of the time points. Main limitations:The large biological variability and small sample size represents limitations of this study.Conclusions: These results suggest that a single bout of intense exercise can reduce the concentration of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-1Ra and increase the concentration of the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-α, reducing the 'anti-inflammatory' cytokine composition of ACS. Our findings suggest that collection of blood for ACS production should be performed no sooner than 24 h following a single episode of intense exercise.

Identification of Differentially Expressed Genes after Endurance Runs in Karbadian Horses to Determine Candidates for Stress Indicators and Performance Capability

“…Some genes are characterized by a high reproducibility of both their induced expression and changed serum level of the proteins. This group includes the interleukins IL1B, IL1R2, and IL22RA2, whose genes were also expressed differentially in our study, as well as IL6, IL8, IL13, and IL17, which were found in other expression or enzyme studies [42][43][44][45][46]55,56,60,65,71]. Various studies on other serum values are interesting in this context.…”

“…For example, well-trained horses showed an anti-inflammatory reaction after an 800 m race, while untrained horses showed a proinflammatory reaction, which is considered a training effect [42,65]. After an appropriate period of rest, these changes appear to return to normal, at least partially [44]. IL1RA, which correlates with cortisol concentration, appears to be of particular importance in restoring the homeostatic equilibrium [45].…”

“…In addition to adrenal gland hormones, immunological markers react to stress, meaning that their level can be seen as a marker for stress. This has been demonstrated, for example, for various interleukins and TNF-α both at the mRNA expression level [42,43] and at the protein level (serum concentration) [44][45][46]. These studies are important because precise knowledge of stress indicators, such as cytokines, offers an opportunity to correctly assess the training level of horses and thus help not to overload horses in sporting competitions.…”