The effect of acute physical exercise on cytokine levels in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus

Background Acute exercise increases IL-6, IL-10 and TNF- levels in healthy subjects. There is no study evaluating the effect of exercise on cytokines level in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) patients. Objective Our aim was to assess IL-10, IL-6 and TNF- levels at baseline and after acute physical exercise in patients with SLE. Methods In total, 27 female SLE patients and 30 healthy controls were evaluated. Serum levels of IL-10, IL-6 and TNF- at baseline and soon after the ergospirometric test were measured by ELISA test. Student's t-tests and Mann-Whitney test were used for intra- and inter-group comparisons; p values <0.05 were considered significant. Results Patients with SLE presented worse ergospirometric parameters compared with controls: VO2max (25.785.51 vs. 32.74 +/- 5.85ml/kg/min, p<0.001); maximum heart rate (174.18 +/- 12.36 vs. 185.15 +/- 2.07bpm, p=0.001); maximum ventilation (65.51 +/- 15.68 vs. 80.48 +/- 18.98l/min, p=0.001) and maximum speed (7.70 +/- 1.24 vs. 9.40 +/- 1.22km/h, p<0.001). At baseline, SLE patients presented higher levels of IL-6 (2.38 +/- 1.70 vs. 1.71 +/- 0.29pg/ml, p=0.035) and IL-10 (1.09 +/- 1.55 vs. 0.30 +/- 0.11pg/ml, p=0.037) than controls. Acute exercise in controls increased IL-6 level (1.71 +/- 0.29 vs. 2.01 +/- 0.27pg/ml, p=0.003) without change in IL-10 and TNF- levels. However, no significant change in cytokine levels was observed in SLE patients after acute exercise. Conclusion This is the first study evaluating the effect of acute exercise on cytokine levels in patients with SLE. In contrast to healthy controls, acute physical exercise did not increase the levels of IL-6 in patients with SLE, and seems to be safe in those patients with inactive or mild active disease.