Lymphocyte changes after resistive breathing and whole body exercise before and after antioxidants.

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In this study we show that in healthy humans resistive breathing, a hallmark of obstructive pulmonary diseases pathophysiology and a form of exercise for the respiratory muscles, produces alterations in peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets similar to whole body exercise. These alterations following resistive breathing are mediated by an oxidative stress dependent pathway, since the administration of antioxidants blunted most of these changes. In contrast, peripheral blood lymphocyte subsets alterations after whole body exercise were minimally affected by antioxidant administration. Our findings are clinically relevant considering that lymphocytes are key immune cells in the pathogenesis of obstructive pulmonary diseases where resistive breathing occurs. We believe that our study is novel and contributes to the understanding of the association of airway obstruction, oxidative stress and the immune system adaptation that occurs in diseases such as COPD and asthma. The present study comes in conjunction with our previous findings (in human and animal studies) were resistive breathing produced respiratory muscle injury, systemic and lung inflammation and lung injury.

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