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To examine the plasma interleukin (IL)-6 response in elderly (E) and young (Y) humans, 10 E and 10 Y subjects completed 60 min of eccentric lower limb exercise at the same relative oxygen uptake. Plasma IL-6 was measured before, immediately after, and 5 days into recovery from exercise, as were the biochemical markers of muscle damage, creatine kinase (CK), and myoglobin. In both groups, IL-6 increased (P < 0.05) immediately after exercise and peaked 4 h after exercise at 4.35 +/- 1.7 vs. 5.05 +/- 3.17 pg/ml for E and Y subjects, respectively. However, the increase in IL-6 in both groups was modest relative to the increases in CK peaking at 539 +/- 413 vs. 10,301 +/- 5,863 U/l for E and Y subjects, respectively. In addition, the increase in IL-6 was less pronounced (P < 0.05) in E subjects compared with Y subjects. These results suggest that IL-6 increases progressively after eccentric exercise, suggesting that this increase is related to muscle damage. However, the modest increase in IL-6, despite large increases in CK, suggests that the IL-6 response to muscle damage does not make an important contribution to the large increase in IL-6 observed during concentric exercise of long duration. Our data also suggest that aging may be associated with impaired repair mechanisms for exercise-induced muscle damage.

The present double-blinded, placebo-controlled study investigated whether antioxidant vitamin supplementation was able to modulate the cytokine and lymphocyte responses after strenuous eccentric exercise. Furthermore, muscle enzyme release was examined to see whether antioxidant treatment could reduce muscle damage. Twenty male recreational runners randomly received either antioxidants (500 mg of vitamin C and 400 mg of vitamin E) or placebo for 14 days before and 7 days after a 5% downhill 90-min treadmill run at 75% .VO(2 max). Although the supplemented group differed significantly with regard to plasma vitamin concentration before and after exercise when compared with the placebo group, the two groups showed identical exercise-induced changes in cytokine, muscle enzyme, and lymphocyte subpopulations. The plasma level of interleukin (IL)-6 and IL-1 receptor antagonist increased 20- and 3-fold after exercise. The plasma level of creatine kinase was increased sixfold the day after exercise. The concentrations of CD4+ memory T cells, CD8+ memory and naïve T cells, and natural killer cells increased at the end of exercise. The total lymphocyte concentration was below prevalues in the postexercise period. In conclusion, the present study does not support the idea that exercise-induced inflammatory responses are induced by free oxygen radicals.