Exercise-driven exacerbation of inflammation: contribution of animal models of rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritis

ABSTRACT

Purpose

To describe the observations of studies that have explored the effects of exercise on inflammation and tissue remodeling in animal models of inflammatory arthropathies including Rheumatoid Arthritis and Spondyloarthritis.

Methods

A search was performed at Pubmed, Scopus and Web of Science databases from 2010 to 2021. The selected articles were classified into those who reported positive and negative effects of exercise, and the characteristics of their experimental designs, including the animal model, the study groups, the exercise intervention and the evaluation techniques, were detailed.

Results

Thirteen original articles that met the selection criteria were included. The effects of exercise on the joint biology of mice with inflammatory arthritis were controversial. Although exercise benefits have been observed in some experimental designs, the majority of them have shown that exercise leads to exacerbation of inflammation, tissue remodeling, and processes associated with arthritis such as oxidative stress and hypoxia.

Conclusion

Further research is necessary as the existing guidelines do not consider the negative effects of the exercise evidenced in animal models. The potential risks of exercise for patients should be considered.

KEYWORDS:

• Rheumatoid arthritis
• spondyloarthritis
• complement
• hypoxia
• oxidative stress

Disclosure statement

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

Author contributions

SAG-CH and CP-T contributed substantially in the search, review, and exhaustive analysis of the articles, as well as in the writing of the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported that there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.