ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 1999 September;39(3):233-9

Copyright © 2000 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

The effect of physical activity and fitness on specific antibody production in college students

Schuler P. B. ¹, Lloyd L. K. ², Leblanc P. A. ³, Clapp T. A. ², Abadie B. R. ⁴, Collins R. K. ⁴

¹ Human Performance Laboratory, Department of Health Leisure and Sport, Pensacola University of West Florida; ² Human Performance Laboratory, Department of Human Performance Studies, Tuscaloosa University of Alabama; ³ Immunology Laboratory, Department of Biological Sciences, Tuscaloosa University of Alabama; ⁴ Human Performance Laboratory, Department of Physical Education Health Recreation and Sport, Mississippi State University, USA

Background. The pur­pose of ­this ­study was to deter­mine the ­effect of mod­er­ate phys­i­cal activ­ity/fit­ness on the ­immune ­response to a ­defined anti­gen, in par­tic­u­lar, the hemag­glu­ti­nin-inhi­bi­tion ­response to the H1 (A/Texas/36/91) and H3 (A/Johannesburg/33/94) com­po­nents of the 1995-96 Influenza ­virus vac­cine.
Methods. Sixty-sev­en vol­un­teers 18-30 ­years of age (­mean 21.1+2.3) par­tic­i­pat­ed in the ­study. Physical activ­ity was ­assessed ­using the Stanford 7-Day Recall Questionnaire, phys­i­cal fit­ness (V.O2max) was pre­dict­ed ­based on grad­ed sub­max­i­mal ­cycle ergom­e­try. Participants ­were divid­ed ­into six ­groups (low­er-­active/fit, mod­er­ate ­active/fit, and high­er ­active/fit), ­based on ­their ­scores on the 7-Day Recall Questionnaire or pre­dict­ed V.O2max, respec­tive­ly. Plasma sam­ples ­were col­lect­ed ­prior to, one, two, ­four, and six ­weeks ­post vac­ci­na­tion. A ­total of ­four sep­ar­ate repeat­ed meas­ures ANO­VA ­were uti­lized to eval­u­ate the ­effect of phys­i­cal fit­ness and phys­i­cal activ­ity on the ­immune ­response to the H1 and H3 com­po­nents of the vac­cine.
Results. As expect­ed, for ­both anti­gens, tit­ers sig­nif­i­cant­ly ­increased ­after vac­ci­na­tion, ­with the high­est tit­ers ­found on ­week ­four (H1) and ­week six (H3), respec­tive­ly. However, for ­both anti­gens, ­there was no dif­fer­ence ­between ­groups and no sig­nif­i­cant inter­ac­tion.
Conclusions. The ­results of ­this ­study ­showed no sig­nif­i­cant ­effect of phys­i­cal fit­ness or phys­i­cal activ­ity on the pro­duc­tion of spe­cif­ic anti­body in the ­range of phys­i­cal fit­ness and phys­i­cal activ­ity ­found with­in ­this ­group of col­lege stu­dents.