title: Hippocampal structure, metabolism, and inflammatory response after a 6-week intense aerobic exercise in healthy young adults: a controlled trial.
abstract: Interventional studies suggest that changes in physical fitness affect brain function and structure. We studied the influence of high intensity physical exercise on hippocampal volume and metabolism in 17 young healthy male adults during a 6-week exercise program compared with matched controls. We further aimed to relate these changes to hypothesized changes in exercised-induced brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). We show profound improvement of physical fitness in most subjects and a positive correlation between the degree of fitness improvement and increased BDNF levels. We unexpectedly observed an average volume decrease of about 2%, which was restricted to right hippocampal subfields CA2/3, subiculum, and dentate gyrus and which correlated with fitness improvement and increased BDNF levels negatively. This result indicates that mainly those subjects who did not benefit from the exercise program show decreased hippocampal volume, reduced BDNF levels, and increased TNF-α concentrations. While spectroscopy results do not indicate any neuronal loss (unchanged N-acetylaspartate levels) decreased glutamate-glutamine levels were observed in the right anterior hippocampus in the exercise group only. Responder characteristics need to be studied in more detail. Our results point to an important role of the inflammatory response after exercise on changes in hippocampal structure.
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Brain and Body Research Group Jena, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Gerd
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wagner
authors.affiliation: Department of Sports Medicine and Health Promotion, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Herbsleb
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Brain and Body Research Group Jena, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Feliberto
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: de la Cruz
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Brain and Body Research Group Jena, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Andy
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schumann
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Brain and Body Research Group Jena, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Franziska
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Brünner
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Brain and Body Research Group Jena, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schachtzabel
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics Group, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Jena University Hospital-Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gussew
authors.affiliation: Department of Sports Medicine and Health Promotion, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Puta
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Stefan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Smesny
authors.affiliation: Department of Sports Medicine and Health Promotion, Friedrich-Schiller-University, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Holger W
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Gabriel
authors.affiliation: Medical Physics Group, Department of Diagnostic and Interventional Radiology, Jena University Hospital-Friedrich Schiller University, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Jürgen R
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Reichenbach
authors.affiliation: Psychiatric Brain and Body Research Group Jena, Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, Jena University Hospital, Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: Karl-Jürgen
authors.initials: KJ
authors.lastname: Bär
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001224:Aspartic Acid / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000378:metabolism; D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor / Q000378:metabolism; D015444:Exercise / Q000502:physiology*; D005080:Exercise Test; D005260:Female; D005971:Glutamates / Q000378:metabolism; D005973:Glutamine / Q000378:metabolism; D006624:Hippocampus / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted; D007249:Inflammation / Q000473:pathology*; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000378:metabolism; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D010809:Physical Fitness; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha / Q000378:metabolism; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D019208:Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor; D005971:Glutamates; D015850:Interleukin-6; D014409:Tumor Necrosis Factor-alpha; D005973:Glutamine; D001224:Aspartic Acid; C000179:N-acetylaspartate