Cytokine concentrations in saliva vs. plasma at rest and in response to intense exercise in adolescent athletes

Abstract

Background

Salivary measures are advantageous in conducting large paediatric studies involving repeated measures. However, research measuring salivary cytokines in youth is limited.

Aim

Compare salivary with plasma concentrations of inflammatory cytokines at rest and following exercise in adolescent swimmers (21 male, 22 female).

Methods

Following collection of resting saliva and blood samples, participants performed a bout of high-intensity interval swimming, with samples taken again ∼15 min post-swimming and analysed for interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin 10 (IL-10), and tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α).

Results

Resting IL-10 was significantly lower, while IL-6 and TNF-α were significantly higher in saliva compared with plasma. IL-10 increased from pre- to post-swimming in plasma, but less so in saliva (51% vs. 29%; p = 0.02). TNF-α decreased post-swimming in saliva, but not in plasma (–27% vs −1%; p = 0.01). IL-6 decreased post-swimming in saliva compared with plasma (–21% vs. −3%; p = 0.06). Intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC) revealed no association between salivary and plasma IL-6 and TNF-α, while IL-10 showed a weak correlation only at rest (ICC = 0.39; p = 0.05).

Conclusions

Differences in concentrations and exercise responses, along with weak correlations, suggest that salivary cytokine levels are not an accurate representation of blood cytokine levels, and should not be used as a surrogate measure in paediatric studies.

Keywords:

• Interleukins
• TNF-α
• saliva plasma
• adolescents
• high-intensity interval swimming

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to REB restrictions.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) grant to P. Klentrou (# 2015-04424). B.J. McKinlay was supported by a MITACS/Own the Podium doctoral scholarship through a grant awarded to P. Klentrou (# IT08117), and an Ontario Graduate Scholarship. N. Kurgan holds an NSERC doctoral scholarship.