The effect of exercise on cytokine concentration in equine autologous conditioned serum.

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Autologous conditioned serum (ACS) is a commonly administered intra-articular treatment for the management of osteoarthritis in athletic horses. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the influence of exercise on the concentration of cytokines in a non-commercial method of ACS production. STUDY DESIGN: Non-randomised cross over design. METHODS: Whole blood was obtained from eight healthy Standardbred horses immediately prior to, 1&#xa0;h and 24&#x2009;h following a single bout of exhaustive exercise. Blood was processed using a non-commercial method of ACS production. Fluorescent microsphere immunoassay (FMIA) analysis was performed to quantify Interleukin 1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra), Interleukin-10 (IL-10), Interleukin 1&#x3b2; (IL-1&#x3b2;) and tumour necrosis factor &#x3b1; (TNF-&#x3b1;) concentrations at each time point. Mixed effect repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to compare the pre-exercise and post-exercise cytokine concentrations. Significance was set at P&#x2009;<&#x2009;0.05. RESULTS: A reduced concentration of IL-1Ra (median 584.4, IQR 81.9-5098&#x2009;pg/ml, p&#xa0;=&#x2009;0.004) and an increased concentration of TNF-&#x3b1; (11.92, 9.28-39.75&#x2009;pg/ml, P&#xa0;=&#x2009;.05) at 1&#xa0;h post-exercise were observed when compared with baseline values (IL-Ra 7349, 1272-10&#xa0;760&#x2009;pg/ml; TNF TNF-&#x3b1; 11.16, 8.36-32.74&#x2009;pg/ml). No difference in cytokine concentrations of IL-10 or IL-1&#x3b2; were found between any of the time points. MAIN LIMITATIONS: The large biological variability and small sample size represents limitations of this study. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that a single bout of intense exercise can reduce the concentration of the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-1Ra and increase the concentration of the pro-inflammatory cytokine TNF-&#x3b1;, reducing the 'anti-inflammatory' cytokine composition of ACS. Our findings suggest that collection of blood for ACS production should be performed no sooner than 24&#x2009;h following a single episode of intense exercise.