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

• DOI: 10.1111/evj.13586
• Publication Date: 2022-05-15T14:54:26Z
• Authors: Josephine N. Hale; Kristopher J. Hughes; Sarah Hall; Raphael Labens
• Keywords: Serum; 0403 veterinary science; Interleukin 1 Receptor Antagonist Protein; Cross-Over Studies; Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; Physical Conditioning, Animal; Osteoarthritis; Animals; Cytokines; Horses; 04 agricultural and veterinary sciences; Interleukin-10

AbstractBackgroundAutologous conditioned serum (ACS) is a commonly administered intra‐articular treatment for the management of osteoarthritis in athletic horses.ObjectivesTo investigate the influence of exercise on the concentration of cytokines in a non‐commercial method of ACS production.Study designNon‐randomised cross over design.MethodsWhole blood was obtained from eight healthy Standardbred horses immediately prior to, 1 h and 24 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 1β (IL‐1β) and tumour necrosis factor α (TNF‐α) 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 < 0.05.ResultsA reduced concentration of IL‐1Ra (median 584.4, IQR 81.9–5098 pg/ml,p = 0.004) and an increased concentration of TNF‐α (11.92, 9.28–39.75 pg/ml,P = .05) at 1 h post‐exercise were observed when compared with baseline values (IL‐Ra 7349, 1272–10 760 pg/ml; TNF TNF‐α 11.16, 8.36–32.74 pg/ml). No difference in cytokine concentrations of IL‐10 or IL‐1β were found between any of the time points.Main limitationsThe large biological variability and small sample size represents limitations of this study.ConclusionsThese 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‐α, 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 h following a single episode of intense exercise.