Exercise training and energy restriction decrease neutrophil phagocytic activity in judoists

Purpose: To investigate the effects of weight reduction as the result of ex ercise training and energy restriction on neutrophil function. Methods: Eig hteen male competitive college judoists participated in the study. In a who le blood assay, oxidative burst activity, phagocytic activity, expressions of Fc gamma receptor 3 (CD16), and complement receptor 3 (CD11b) of neutrop hils were measured on a per cell basis by flow cytometry at day 20, 5, and 1 before and at day 7 after the competition. Results: The rate of neutrophi l producing reactive oxygen species decreased before the competition, where as the oxidative burst activity per cell increased significantly in all sub jects, which resulted in a significant increase of the total oxidative burs t activity. However, there were no significant effect of energy restriction on oxidative burst activity. The rate of neutrophils incorporating opsoniz ed zymosan decreased significantly with energy restriction. The total phago cytic activity of 10000 neutrophils and the phagocytic activity per cell al so decreased significantly by severe energy restriction. The surface antige n expressions of CD11b and CD16 were unaffected by weight reduction. Conclu sions: The results suggest that with respect to the management of health co nditions, weight reduction for judoists should be composed of exercise trai ning and energy restriction should be moderate.