Alteration of macrophage function in AKR/J leukemic mice

Effect of age and of swimming-induced stress on the phagocytic capacity of peritoneal macrophages from mice

The effect of age and physical activity stress (swimming until exhaustion) on the phagocytic capacity of the peritoneal macrophages was studied in young (12 +/- 4-week-old) and old (68 +/- 6-week-old) BALB/c mice. The attachment and ingestion of opsonized Candida albicans as well as the ingestion of inert particles (latex beads) by these cells was compared between young and old animals at rest. The results show that phagocytosis of peritoneal macrophages is not impaired in old mice. With respect to the effect of physical activity stress, we evaluated the phagocytic capacity both of C. albicans and of latex beads before and immediately after swimming until exhaustion, and in the absence or presence of a previous period (1 month) of training. The results indicate that the phagocytic capacity of peritoneal macrophages is increased after swimming until exhaustion, both with and without previous adaptation or training, and in both young and old mice.

Influence of physical activity stress and age on the ADCC of lymphocytes from mice

The influence of physical activity stress (swimming until exhaustion) and age on the antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) of lymphocytes from spleen, thymus and axillary lymph nodes in BALB/c mice was studied. The results indicate that the ADCC activity decreases after the acute stress both in young and in old mice. However, when swimming until exhaustion is performed after 1 month training, the ADCC activity increases except in the case of spleen lymphocytes from old mice. The basal ADCC capacity of spleen lymphocytes from old controls is higher (P<0.05) than from young controls, but there are no statistically significant differences in this respect between young and old animals in lymphocytes from thymus and axillary lymph nodes. No correlations between the increase in serum corticosterone levels and ADCC response are found.