Influence of an acute exercise on neutrophil and platelet adhesion, nitricoxide plasma metabolites in inactive and active subjects

In this work we studied the influence of an acute exercise L-NAME: either o n nitrite/nitrate plasma levels or on neutrophil and EDTA: platelet adhesio n in inactive and active subjects, Twelve healthy THR: subjects (6 inactive s and 6 actives) exercised on a racing cycle ADP: ergometer performing step wise increases in intensity until reaching, within 5 min, a heart rate of 1 50 beats x min(-1) which represents an oxygen consumption of about 75 % of the individual maximum rate of oxygen uptake, From peripheral venous blood samples (drawn from all subjects before, immediately after the end of exerc ise, and 1 hour later) neutrophils and platelets were isolated to test plat e adhesion, and nitrite/nitrate concentrations were measured in the plasma. Immediately after the acute exercise, in active subjects we observed a sig nificant decrease in the percentage of neutrophil adhesion (7.96 +/- 2.38 v s. 14.10 +/- 3.14), associated with an increase in nitrite/nitrate plasma l evels (81.38 +/- 10.76 vs. 41.08 +/- 8.13 mu mol x l(-1)), restored by a 40 min pre-incubation with NG-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME). In unst imulated platelets we observed a significant lower percentage of platelet a dhesion in active subjects compared to inactives after exercise. With throm bin or adenosine 5'-diphosphate as agonists platelet adhesion did not resul t significantly different in active subjects compared to inactives. In conc lusion, our data show that physical exercise can induce changes in some cel l activities, even if transient, and favour the generation of nitric oxide. The lower adhesion of neutrophils and platelets induced by regular exercis e could be an important goal in the prevention of vascular and inflammatory diseases.