LYMPHOCYTE SUBPOPULATIONS AND CONCENTRATIONS OF SOLUBLE CD8 AND CD4 ANTIGEN AFTER ANAEROBIC TRAINING

In 13 middle-aged, moderately trained men (40-60 yr) we investigated t he influence of anaerobic training on immunological parameters measure d at rest, The 4 week anaerobic training program (two 30-min sessions weight lifting and one interval training per week; lactate levels 4-6 mM and 8-10 mM, respectively), caused a significant increase of the me an arm muscle force by 7% (handgrip test, p < 0.05). Evaluation of lym phocyte subsets was performed by means of three-colour immunofluoresce nce analysis (FACS). After 4 weeks of training we found a significant reduction of the CD4+ T-cell counts by 15% (p < 0.05) paralleled by a fall of naive cells (CD3+/CD4+/ CD45RA+) by 16%, which, however, was s tatistically not significant. While percentages of CD3+ lymphocytes de creased significantly by 6% (p < 0.001), absolute numbers of CD3+ T-ly mphocytes were not detectably affected and also the relative ratio of CD8+ T-cell subsets, i.e. the ratio of suppressor vs cytotoxic T-cells (CD3+/CD8+/CD11b+, CD3+/CD8+/CD11b- respectively) remained unchanged. Likewise the serum concentrations of the soluble CD8 and CD4 antigen (sCD8/sCD4) as determined by sandwich enzyme immunoassays were found t o be unaffected. We conclude that 40-60 years old healthy human subjec ts performing anaerobic training experience on average a significant d ecrease of circulating CD4+ T-lymphocytes, while other parameters incl uding the activation parameters sCD8 and sCD4 remained unchanged.