Abstract
Objective
The aim of this study was to investigate the immunological responses and the association between variation in exercise load and self-reported occurrence of upper respiratory illness (URI) symptoms in young basketball athletes.
Materials and methods
The sample was composed of twelve young male athletes aged 12.7 ± 0.6 years, with a height of 170 ± 10 cm, body mass of 57.6 ± 12.6 kg, and fat-free mass of 18.7 ± 5.9%. Daily training and occurrences of URI symptoms were recorded. Blood samples were collected at baseline (M1) and after 8 weeks (M2) of the preparatory period of periodization training to measure total and differential leukocyte counts, serum interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α).
Results
There was a significant decrease in monocytes at M2 compared to M1 (P = 0.004). There were no significant alterations in total leukocytes (P = 0.07), neutrophils (P = 0.07), or lymphocytes (P = 0.09). No significant changes in plasma concentrations of TNF-α (P = 0.30) or IL-6 (P = 0.90) were found. The weekly load from week 6 was higher when compared with weeks 1, 2, 4, and 8 (P < 0.05), and week 8 was the lowest when compared with week 5 (P < 0.05). Self-reported URI incidences were highest at weeks 1 and 2.
Conclusion
Variations in weekly training load during the preparatory period were not correlated with changes in self-reported occurrence of URI incidences, suggesting that young athletes may have an attenuated response to exercise-induced perturbations to the immune system.
Acknowledgments
The authors thank the National Council of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq), Brazil for their financial support.
Disclosure
The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.