Exercise has health benefits, including improved metabolic health, prevention of cardiovascular disease and diabetes. Recent research has found that the health benefits of exercise stem from the regulatory role of the immune system.

Regulatory T cells (TreGs) in the muscles during exercise fight inflammation and increase endurance. Exercise reduces interferon production, lowers chronic inflammation levels, and prevents inflammatory diseases.

Clearance of interferon by Treg cells during exercise is critical for the performance of mitochondrial adaptation and training responses.
Life lies in sports, long-term exercise can enhance physical function, good for health.

This benefit can be seen in a number of ways, such as improving metabolic health, preventing cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and more. In addition, many studies have also shown that exercise can reduce the risk of cancer.

However, the micromolecular mechanism by which exercise benefits health has not been elucidated. It is worth noting that the mysterious link between exercise, inflammation and immunity has attracted intense attention from scientists since the early 20th century, when a study showed that elite athletes participating in the Boston Marathon had a surge of white blood cells in their blood after the race.

Recently, Diane Mathis and her team at Harvard Medical School published a paper in the journal Science Immunology entitled: Regulatory T cells shield muscle mitochondria from interferon- gamma -mediated damage to promote the beneficial effects of A research paper on exercise (regulatory T cells protect muscle mitochondria from gamma-interferon-mediated damage to promote the beneficial effects of exercise), which was also selected as the current cover paper.

The study suggests that some of the benefits of exercise stem from the immune system. During exercise, regulatory T cells (TreGs) mobilized in the muscles fight off exercise-induced inflammation and increase endurance. Not only that, but immune cells also protect against muscle damage by lowering levels of interferon, which is a key driver of chronic inflammation, inflammatory diseases, and aging.

Chronic inflammation underlies many diseases, including cardiovascular disease, obesity, type 2 diabetes, neurodegeneration, and cancer, and exercise can reduce the risk of developing these diseases. For example, achieving a daily base of physical activity was associated with a 20% lower risk of all-cause death, and this health effect continued to increase with moderate physical activity.

Skeletal muscle is the exercise executor, but also plays a key role in the regulation of body metabolism and immune homeostasis. In the stable state, skeletal muscle contains a small number of Treg cells, a class of immune cells that has long been known to fight abnormal inflammation associated with autoimmune diseases.

When muscle damage occurs, Treg cells expand and coordinate the transition from pro-inflammatory to pro-repair processes, but whether this process is related to the benefits of exercise has not been well studied.

In this latest study, the research team explored the potential of acute endurance exercise (AEX) to regulate the activity of skeletal muscle immune cells. The researchers extracted cells from the hind limb muscles of mice with short exercise, mice with long exercise and sedentary mice, and performed a comparative immunophenotypic analysis.