title: Effects of exercise interventions in graft-versus-host disease models.
abstract: Graft-versus-host-disease (GVHD) is a major complication of allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT), which is associated with high morbimortality and decreased patients' physical capacity. We evaluated the effects of an 11-week moderate-intensity exercise (treadmill) training program performed after allo-HSCT in a murine acute (aGVHD) and chronic GVHD model (cGVHD). Female mice (aged 8-12 weeks) were randomly assigned to the exercise or the control group. They completed a maximal treadmill test before allo-HSCT (with donor bone marrow cells and splenocytes) and after the 11-week period, during which we evaluated clinical severity scores and survival (Kaplan-Meier method). Before allo-HSCT and at days +21, +52 and +83 (upon sacrifice), we collected blood samples for immune cell reconstitution and cytokine analysis. The main results were that (i) in aGVHD, exercise improved maximal physical capacity over the 11-week period compared with pre-allo-HSCT conditions (p < 0.001 for the between-group comparison) and benefited total clinical score evolution (p = 0.05 for the group × time interaction effect), without altering immune reconstitution; (ii) in cGVHD, exercise training resulted in a lesser deterioration of physical capacity after 11 weeks (p = 0.023). Our results highlight the potential beneficial effects of exercise as coadjuvant intervention against GVHD, especially in the acute form of the disease.
authors.affiliation: Universidad Europea and Instituto de Investigación (i+12), Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: Carmen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Fiuza-Luces
authors.forename: Africa
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: González-Murillo
authors.forename: Luisa
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Soares-Miranda
authors.forename: Jesús
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Martínez Palacio
authors.forename: Isabel
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Colmenero
authors.forename: Fernando
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Casco
authors.forename: Gustavo
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Melén
authors.forename: María
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Morán
authors.forename: Alejandro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lucia
authors.forename: Manuel
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ramírez
mesh_terms: D000208:Acute Disease; D000818:Animals; D015496:CD4-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D018414:CD8-Positive T-Lymphocytes / Q000276:immunology / Q000378:metabolism; D002908:Chronic Disease; D016207:Cytokines / Q000097:blood; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D006086:Graft vs Host Disease / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D018380:Hematopoietic Stem Cell Transplantation; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008809:Mice, Inbred C3H; D008810:Mice, Inbred C57BL; D010805:Physical Conditioning, Animal; D038762:Ribosomal Protein S6 Kinases, 70-kDa / Q000378:metabolism; D012720:Severity of Illness Index; D014184:Transplantation, Homologous; D014916:Whole-Body Irradiation
chemical_list: D016207:Cytokines; D038762:Ribosomal Protein S6 Kinases, 70-kDa