Impact Of An Exercise Intervention On The Inflammatory Profile In Children With Overweight/obesity: ActiveBrains Study

Although regular exercise is generally believed to have an overall anti-inflammatory effect, data available in prepubertal children are limited compared with other age groups. Indeed, recent studies have suggested that regular aerobic and resistance exercise may represent an optimal strategy to reduce adiponectin, C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin (IL)-6, leptin, and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in adolescents with overweight/obesity. Yet, the evidence is more limited for the endothelial and hormonal adaptation to regular exercise. PURPOSE: To assess the effects of a 20-week combined (aerobic and resistance) exercise training program on the inflammatory profile in prepubertal children with overweight/obesity. METHODS: 109 children (10.1 ± 1.1 years, 41% girls) were randomly allocated to an exercise or control group. Adiponectin, CRP, epidermal growth factor, insulin-like growth factor-1, IL-1β, IL-6, leptin, TNF-α, and vascular endothelial growth factor A were analyzed in plasma. Total white blood cell count and cell subpopulations (eosinophils, basophils, neutrophils, lymphocytes, and monocytes) were also determined. RESULTS: No intervention effect was found for any of the analyzed biomarkers (all p > 0.05). After stratifying the sample by sex, the exercise program induced a significant effect on IL-1β levels (mean Z-score difference, 0.66 [95% confidence interval 0.32–1.01]) and basophil count (-0.59 [-1.14–-0.11]) in girls, but not in boys. A lower number of girls in the exercise group showed a meaningful reduction in IL-1β (i.e., ≥0.2 standard deviations) than in the control group (15% vs. 85%, p = 0.01). CONCLUSION: This exercise program failed to improve systemic inflammation biomarkers in prepubertal children with overweight/obesity. In fact, we observed some evidence for an increase on IL-1β (a pro-inflammatory cytokine) in response to exercise in girls. Yet, this finding must be replicated in future studies due to the small number of girls in our exercise group. "José Castillejo" International Mobility Stays For Young Researchers (ID: CAS22/00255)