Responses of cytokines to influenza vaccination in elite boy gymnasts

Many of effects of exercise are mediated through cytokines. Inflammatory cytokines are increased by exercise and inhibited by anti-inflammatory cytokines. Meanwhile, vaccination leads to an increase in the inflammatory cytokines. To test the hypothesis that exercise training might alter the cytokine response to the influenza vaccine, we measured selected cytokines in elite boy gymnasts and non-exercising subjects who were administered with the influenza vaccine and compared these against non-vaccinated gymnasts.
Forty five healthy 9- to 12- years old children (30 gymnasts and 15 untrained) were assigned to training group (TG), training-vaccine group (TVG) and vaccine group (VG). The exercise protocol consisted of a 3 hours gymnastic practice, 3 days per week, for 8 weeks. TVG and VG group were immunized with trivalent influenza vaccine in the 0(Pre), 4 and 8th weeks. Pre- vaccination, 4 and 8 week blood samples were obtained in all subjects. Data were analyzed by one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and repeated measures tests. Significance level was accepted at P After the intervention, significant decreases in IL-6 and IFN-γ were observed in all the groups (P The results demonstrate that gymnastic training and vaccine in healthy children lead to reduction in inflammatory cytokines. This might explain the immature immune system response in children to both vaccination and exercise training.