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Research Paper|Volume 15, Issue 22|pp 13471—13485

Enhanced serum levels of tumor necrosis factor-α, interleukin-1β, and -6 in sarcopenia: alleviation through exercise and nutrition intervention

Ke-Vin Chang1,2,3, Wei-Ting Wu1,2, Yu-Hsin Chen2, Lan-Rong Chen2, Wei-Hsiang Hsu4, Yun-Lian Lin4,5, Der-Sheng Han1,2
  • 1Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital and National Taiwan University College of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 2Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, National Taiwan University Hospital, Bei-Hu Branch, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 3Center for Regional Anesthesia and Pain Medicine, Taipei Municipal Wang-Fang Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  • 4Department of Chinese Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chinese Medicine Resources, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan
  • 5Department of Pharmacy, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan
Received: August 15, 2023Accepted: October 23, 2023Published: November 29, 2023
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.205254

Copyright: © 2023 Chang et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Background: Limited research has been conducted on the post-intervention inflammatory status in sarcopenic patients, despite previous studies revealing elevated pro-inflammatory markers. This study aimed to investigate the potential elevation of specific pro-inflammatory cytokines in sarcopenic patients and evaluate the effects of exercise and nutritional support interventions on these cytokine levels.

Methods: In this post-hoc analysis of a randomized controlled trial (RCT), 57 individuals with sarcopenia from the RCT and 57 non-sarcopenic participants from the same geriatric community cohort that did not participate in the RCT were enrolled. Grip strength and body composition measurements were recorded. Tumor necrotizing factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, and IL-15 levels were assessed at baseline for both groups and after a 12-week intervention consisting of resistive exercise and supplementation with branched-chain amino acids, calcium, and vitamin D3 in the patients with sarcopenia.

Results: The sarcopenic group demonstrated significantly lower body weight, body mass index, grip strength, and skeletal muscle mass index. Moreover, sarcopenic patients exhibited higher levels of TNF-α (p=0.007), IL-1β (p<0.001), and IL-6 (p<0.001), while no significant difference was observed in IL-15 (p=0.345) between participants with and those without sarcopenia. Following the intervention, the sarcopenic group experienced significant improvements in grip strength and skeletal muscle mass index with a notable reduction in TNF-α (p=0.003), IL-1β (p=0.012) and IL-6 (p=0.001) levels.

Conclusions: Sarcopenic patients exhibit elevated levels of TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6, which declined after nutrition support and exercise interventions. However, further research is necessary to evaluate the long-term impact of these interventions on cytokine levels.