Regular Exercise Enhances the Immune Response Against Microbial Antigens Through Up-Regulation of Toll-like Receptor Signaling Pathways.

Background/aims: Regular physical exercise can enhance resistance to many microbial infections. However, little is known about the mechanism underlying the changes in the immune system induced by regular exercise.

Methods: We recruited members of a university badminton club as the regular exercise (RE) group and healthy sedentary students as the sedentary control (SC) group. We investigated the distribution of peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC) subsets and functions in the two groups.

Results: There were no significant differences in plasma cytokine levels between the RE and SC groups in the true resting state. However, enhanced levels of IFN-γ, TNF-α, IL-6, IFN-α and IL-12 were secreted by PBMCs in the RE group following microbial antigen stimulation, when compared to the SC group. In contrast, the levels of TNF-α and IL-6 secreted by PBMC in the RE group were suppressed compared with those in SC group following non-microbial antigen stimulation (concanavalin A or α-galactosylceramide). Furthermore, PBMC expression of TLR2, TLR7 and MyD88 was significantly increased in the RE group in response to microbial antigen stimulation.

Conclusion: Regular exercise enhances immune cell activation in response to pathogenic stimulation leading to enhanced cytokine production mediated via the TLR signaling pathways.