Journal of Applied Physiology, Vol 77, Issue 5 2341-2347, Copyright © 1994 by American Physiological Society
Effect of muscular exercise on chronic relapsing experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis
C. Le Page, A. Ferry and M. Rieu
Laboratoire de Physiologie des Adaptations and Unite de Formation, Universite Paris V, France.
We examined whether physical exercise affected the development of an
autoimmune response, experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), which
is a demyelinating disease leading to paralysis. EAE was inducted on day 0,
in rats of both sexes, by injecting them with spinal cord tissue in
adjuvant. From days 1 to 10 after injection, exercised rats (n = 55) ran on
a treadmill (60-120 min/day) before the onset of the paralytic disease.
Clinical signs of the disease (ataxia, paralysis, and body mass loss) were
examined in exercised and control rats (n = 54). Three types of EAE were
induced: monophasic, acute, and chronic relapsing (CR)-EAE (3 bouts of
disease, CR-EAE 1, 2, and 3, separated by remissions). Exercise
significantly delayed the onset of CR-EAE 1 (P = 0.001) and the 1st day of
maximum severity of CR-EAE 1 (P = 0.001) and CR-EAE 2 (P = 0.002).
Moreover, the duration of CR-EAE 1 was significantly decreased in exercised
rats compared with control rats (P = 0.004). The peak severity of the
different types of EAE was not modified by exercise. The present study
indicates that endurance exercise during the phase of induction of EAE
diminished lightly only one type of EAE (CR-EAE) and therefore did not
exacerbate the autoimmune disease.
