EFFECTS OF DOWNHILL AND UPHILL EXERCISES OF EQUIVALENT SUBMAXIMAL INTENSITIES ON SELECTED BLOOD CYTOKINE LEVELS AND BLOOD CREATINE KINASE ACTIVITY

The study was aimed at comparing the effects of concentric (CONC) and eccentric (ECC) exercises of equivalent (in terms of relative work load expressed as a percentage of VO(2)max) moderate intensity on selected blood cytokine levels and blood creatine kinase (CK) activity. Twenty recreationally active healthy young male volunteers were randomized between two groups that performed a single 1 h bout of CONC (uphill running) or ECC (downhill running) exercise at 60% of the respective individual VO(2)max. Venous blood taken 1 h before, at the end, and 24 h after the exercise was processed for plasma and analyzed for CK activity and IL-6, IL-1 beta and TNF alpha levels. There was no between-group difference in these cytokines prior to or just after the exercise, and in pre-exercise CK activity. The cytokines elevated significantly and similarly in both groups during the exercise, with no significant change in CK activity. Twenty-four hours later, CK activity and IL-6 were at pre-exercise levels in the CONC group, but showed further major increases in the ECC group, resulting in marked between-group differences in these indices. Changes in IL-1 beta and TNF alpha levels during the recovery period showed only minor differences between the study groups and produced no significant between-group difference in these cytokines. However, IL-1 beta level normalized in the ECC but not in the CONC group. The study suggests that moderate intensity ECC exercise compared to CONC exercise of equivalent relative work load results in considerably greater muscle damage and its related elevation in circulating IL-6, but it does not cause a major systemic inflammatory response.