The impact of exercise training on inflammatory markers in postmenopausal women: A systemic review and meta-analysis

Background: The postmenopausal stage of life is associated with increased systemic inflammation that may be mitigated through exercise training. The effects of exercise training on inflammatory markers in postmenopausal women, however, require further elucidation. We therefore performed a systematic review and meta-analysis to investigate the available high-quality research on the effects of exercise training on inflammatory markers in postmenopausal women. Method: Electronic searches in PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Web of Science, and Google Scholar were conducted to identify articles published through April 2021, for studies comparing exercise training to a control condition, on inflammatory markers including CRP, IL-6, TNF-alpha and adiponectin in postmenopausal women. Randomized or non-randomized controlled trials of exercise training were included according to the following criteria: (A) English language articles; (B) involving women participants who were post-menopausal; (C) providing measures of inflammatory markers including IL-6, TNF-alpha, CRP or adiponectin at baseline and after completion of the intervention; (D) an exercise training intervention duration of >4 weeks. Results: Results were extracted from the included studies and standardized mean differences (SMD) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were calculated. Thirty-two studies (representing 38 intervention groups) involving 1510 postmenopausal women were retrieved from the databases for analyses. Overall, exercise training significantly reduced IL-6 [-0.75 (95% CI: -1.07 to -0.42), p < 0.001; 20 interventions], TNF-alpha [-0.64 (95% CI: -0.91 to -0.37), p < 0.001; 24 interventions] and CRP [-0.64 (95%CI: -0.91 to -0.38), p < 0.001; 21 interventions] and increase adiponectin [0.98 (95% CI: 0.10 to 1.86), p = 0.02; 6 interventions], when compared with control. Furthermore, subgroup analyses suggested that aerobic, resistance, and combined training significantly reduced IL-6, TNF-alpha and CRP (p < 0.05). Exercise training improved IL-6, TNF-alpha and CRP in both younger (age < 64 years) and older (age > 64 years) participants (p < 0.05). Conclusion: These results suggest that exercise training may be an effective intervention for reducing proinflammatory markers and increasing adiponectin in postmenopausal women.

Automated summary

The systematic review and meta-analysis found that exercise training significantly reduced IL-6, TNF-alpha, and CRP, while increasing adiponectin in postmenopausal women. Subgroup analyses also showed that different types of training (aerobic, resistance, combined) had significant effects on inflammatory markers, and the benefits were seen in both younger and older participants. These results suggest that exercise training may be an effective intervention for reducing inflammation and increasing adiponectin in postmenopausal women.