| This study's purpose was to determine the effect of exercise on wound healing and inflammation in young (three months) and old (18-months) female Balb/cByJ mice. Mice were assigned to either exercise (EX) or sedentary control (CON) group. EX mice were run on a motorized treadmill at a moderate intensity for 30 minutes/day for eight days, three days before wounding, and five days afterwards. Mice were given four full thickness dermal wounds using a 3.5mm punch biopsy instrument and wounds were photographed for 10 days. After the old mice fully healed (approximately 3 months), they were wounded again in different locations and wounds with surrounding tissue were harvested at one, three, or five days after wounding. Harvested wound tissue was analyzed with the Bio-Plex(TM) cytokine assay for interleukin-1 (IL-1beta), interleukin-6 (IL-6), keratinocyte chemoattractant (KC), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha). No significant differences in wound size were found as a result of exercise in young mice. However, exercise significantly decreased wound size in old mice when compared to sedentary control mice (F(1,38) = 6.33, p = .016). Levels of some proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines in wound tissue of exercised mice were significantly lower than control mice, including TNF-alpha, KC, and MCP-1. No group differences were found in IL-1beta or IL-6. These data suggest that exercise accelerates the wound healing process in old mice, which is delayed, but not young mice, which display quick healing. In addition, moderate exercise-associated decreases in levels of some inflammatory cytokines and chemokines in wound tissue were associated with faster healing. |
