ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 1998 September;38(3):258-61

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

The impact of soccer training on the immune system

Rebelo A. N. ¹, Candeias J. R. ², Fraga M. M. ², Duarte J. A. R. ¹, Soares J. M. C. ¹, Magalhaes C. ², Torrinha J. A. ²

¹ Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Porto, Portugal; ² Immunology Department, S. João Hospital, Porto, Portugal

Objective. The aim of ­this study was to eval­u­ate wheth­er the lev­el of ­some ­immune mark­ers ­changed in soc­cer ­players dur­ing pre-sea­son and dur­ing play­ing-sea­son.
Design. An obser­va­tion­al ­study for one soc­cer sea­son (one ­year).
Setting. Professional soc­cer ­players.
Participants. Thirteen pro­fes­sion­al soc­cer ­players (age: 26.3±3.7 ­years).
Measures. The ­effect of 11 ­months of soc­cer train­ing ses­sions and match­es on cir­cu­lat­ing leu­ko­cyte and lym­pho­cyte sub­pop­u­la­tions was inves­ti­gat­ed. Blood sam­ples ­were tak­en ­before the sea­son and ­also 6 ­weeks, 6 ­months and 11 ­months lat­er. All sam­ples ­were tak­en at 08:00h.
Results. Total lym­pho­cyte ­counts did not ­change in all sam­ples. During the pre-­sea­son, how­ev­er, the con­cen­tra­tions of ­some inflam­ma­to­ry lym­pho­cyte sub­pop­u­la­tions ­were ­changed: CD4CD45RA+ was ele­vat­ed and CD57 and CD8CD57 ­showed a sig­nif­i­cant ­decrease (p<0.05), At the end of the com­pet­i­tive peri­od, CD4 and CD8 ­were ­increased. At the end of the sea­son ­there ­were sig­nif­i­cant chang­es in ­some immune ­cells: ­total leu­ko­cyte and neu­troph­il num­ber and CD8+ ­cell con­cen­tra­tion was ­increased com­pared to pre-sea­son val­ues and the CD4/CD8 ­ratio was ­decreased.
Conclusions. The ­results sug­gest ­that ­athletes ­exposed to a ­long-­term train­ing peri­ods can exhib­it vari­a­tions in ­some ­immune ­cells. The clin­i­cal sig­nif­i­cance of ­these vari­a­tions ­requires ­more ­detailed inves­ti­ga­tion.