Aging and immune response to exercise

Human immune function undergoes adverse changes with aging. The T cells, which have a central role in cellular immunity, show the largest age-related differences in distribution and function, with thymus involution as the apparent underlying cause. The immune responses to acute exercise and training have not been studied extensively in the elderly. The natural killer (NK) cell response to a single exercise challenge is normal in older individuals, but immediately after exercise the elderly subjects manifest less suppression of phytohemagglutinin (PHA)-induced lymphocyte proliferation than younger individuals. In contrast, a strenuous exercise seems to induce a more sustained postexercise suppression of cellular immunity in older individuals than in their young peers. A few cross-sectional comparisons of immune status between physically fit elderly individuals and young sedentary controls suggest that habitual physical activity may enhance NK cell activity, checking certain aspects of the age-related decline in T cell function, such as reduced mitogenesis in response to plant lectins and decreases in the production of certain types of cytokine. The clinical implications, however, remain to be clarified by future study.