Turkish Journal of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation 2004 , Vol 50 , Num 3

Effect of Aerobic Exercise Training on the Levels of Interleukin-1b, Interleukin-6 and Tumor Necrosis Factor-a in Patients With Rheumatoid Arthritis

Cihat Yapıcı 1 ,Yeşim Kurtaiş 2 ,Peyman Yalçın 3
1 İskenderun State Hospital, İskenderu
2 Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Ankara University Faculty of Medicine, Ankara, Turkey
3 Ankara Üniversitesi Tıp Fakültesi, Fiziksel Tıp ve Rehabilitasyon Anabilim Dalı, Ankara, Türkiye

We aimed to investigate the effect of 8 weeks of aerobic exercise training on interleukin-1b, interleukin-6, and tumor necrosis factor-a levels and disease activity parameters of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Fifteen patients exercised on a treadmill at 70% of their maximal heart rate for forty minutes, three times a week. Clinical and laboratory disease activity parameters were assessed and peak oxygen consumption, baseline and stimulated cytokine levels measured one and six hours after the ergospirometric exercise tests were recorded before and after the training. All of the clinical and laboratory parameters improved with training. The training did not induce changes in the cytokine levels except in tumor necrosis factor-a, for which the mean baseline level slightly decreased. These data suggest that aerobic training does not have any negative effects on the clinical and laboratory parameters, and the serum cytokine levels of patients with rheumatoid arthritis. 

Keywords : Aerobic exercise, interleukin-1b, interleukin-6, tumor necrosis factor-a, rheumatoid arthritis