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Effects of 60-day bed rest with and without exercise on cellular and humoral immunological parameters

Cellular & Molecular Immunology volume 12, pages 483–492 (2015)Cite this article

Abstract

Exercise at regular intervals is assumed to have a positive effect on immune functions. Conversely, after spaceflight and under simulated weightlessness (e.g., bed rest), immune functions can be suppressed. We aimed to assess the effects of simulated weightlessness (Second Berlin BedRest Study; BBR2-2) on immunological parameters and to investigate the effect of exercise (resistive exercise with and without vibration) on these changes. Twenty-four physically and mentally healthy male volunteers (20–45 years) performed resistive vibration exercise (n=7), resistance exercise without vibration (n=8) or no exercise (n=9) within 60 days of bed rest. Blood samples were taken 2 days before bed rest, on days 19 and 60 of bed rest. Composition of immune cells was analyzed by flow cytometry. Cytokines and neuroendocrine parameters were analyzed by Luminex technology and ELISA/RIA in plasma. General changes over time were identified by paired t-test, and exercise-dependent effects by pairwise repeated measurements (analysis of variance (ANOVA)). With all subjects pooled, the number of granulocytes, natural killer T cells, hematopoietic stem cells and CD45RA and CD25 co-expressing T cells increased and the number of monocytes decreased significantly during the study; the concentration of eotaxin decreased significantly. Different impacts of exercise were seen for lymphocytes, B cells, especially the IgD+ subpopulation of B cells and the concentrations of IP-10, RANTES and DHEA-S. We conclude that prolonged bed rest significantly impacts immune cell populations and cytokine concentrations. Exercise was able to specifically influence different immunological parameters. In summary, our data fit the hypothesis of immunoprotection by exercise and may point toward even superior effects by resistive vibration exercise.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Manuela Jakstadt and Tina Bongrazio for technical assistance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Rheumatology and Clinical Immunology, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Paula Hoff, Dörte Huscher, Annemarie Lang, Martin Hahne, Anne-Kathrin Kuhlmey, Patrick Maschmeyer, Timo Gaber, Gerd-Rüdiger Burmester & Frank Buttgereit

  2. Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum (DRFZ), Berlin, Germany

    Paula Hoff, Dörte Huscher, Annemarie Lang, Martin Hahne, Anne-Kathrin Kuhlmey, Patrick Maschmeyer, Timo Gaber & Frank Buttgereit

  3. Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Center for Muscle and Bone Research, Berlin, Germany

    Daniel L Belavý, Gabriele Armbrecht & Dieter Felsenberg

  4. Berlin–Brandenburg School of Regenerative Therapies (BSRT), Berlin, Germany

    Annemarie Lang & Martin Hahne

  5. Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Zentralinstitut für Laboratoriumsmedizin und Pathobiochemie, Berlin, Germany

    Rudolf Fitzner & Frank H Perschel

  6. Berlin–Brandenburg Center of Regenerative Therapies (BCRT), Berlin, Germany

    Paula Hoff, Timo Gaber & Frank Buttgereit

  7. Department of Internal Medicine I, University Hospital of Regensburg, Laboratory of Experimental Rheumatology and Neuroendocrine Immunology, Regensburg, Germany

    Rainer H Straub

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  1. Paula Hoff
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  2. Daniel L Belavý
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Correspondence to Paula Hoff.

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Competing interests

Dieter Felsenberg acts as a consultant to the European Space Agency and Novotec Medical for the exploitation of the results of this study. Apart from that, the authors declare no conflict of interest.

The BBR2-2 was supported by grant 14431/02/NL/SH2 from the European Space Agency and grant 50WB0720 from the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The 2nd Berlin Bed rest Study was also sponsored by Novotec Medical, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Siemens, Osteomedical Group, Wyeth Pharma, Servier Deutschland, P&G, Kubivent, Seca, Astra-Zeneka and General Electric. Daniel L. Belavý was supported by a post-doctoral fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

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Hoff, P., Belavý, D., Huscher, D. et al. Effects of 60-day bed rest with and without exercise on cellular and humoral immunological parameters. Cell Mol Immunol 12, 483–492 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/cmi.2014.106

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