The effect of moderate exercise on natural killer cell
activity in cervical cord injury patients
Masaki
Goto, Midori Yamanaka, Ken Kouda, Takashi Kawasaki,
Yusuke Sasaki, and Fumihiro Tajima
Department
of Rehabilitation Medicine,
There
have been many studies of effect of exercise on immune function. One of the
most common measurements of innate immunity is natural killer cell activity
(NKCA). Recently we reported that NKCA increased immediately after moderate exercise,
decreased 1 hour later, and then backed to a normal state in healthy subjects.
However, no results, to our knowledge, have ever been reported in cervical cord
injury patients. The purpose of the present study is to determine the effect of
moderate exercise on NKCA in cervical cord injury patients. Nine patients with
cervical cord injury performed hand ergometer exercise at 60% VO2 peak for 20 min.
White blood cells and natural killer cells were determined before and
immediately after exercise, as well as 1 hour and 2 hour afterwards. Compared with levels at rest, WBC increased
two hour after exercise (P<0.05), but the NK cell activity was not changed during
the measurement period. These results showed that change of NKCA in cervical
cord injury patients was quite different from those in healthy subjects. The
reason for this difference is not apparent, and this will be the subjects further study.
Key words: cervical cord
injury, exercise, natural killer cell activity