Abstract
Background
Obesity, defined by an excess amount of body fat or a percent body fat higher than 30 % for women is a complex chronic disorder with multifactorial etiology and is accompanied by chronic low-grade inflammation, which results in elevated pro-inflammatory cytokines.
Aims
The aim of this study was to compare muscle strength between high and low pro-inflammatory status in obese elderly women and to verify the relationship of IL-6 with muscle strength and fat-free mass.
Methods
Eighty-nine elderly women (age 69.47 ± 6.07 years; body mass 64.70 ± 12.04 kg; height 1.52 ± 0.06 m; body mass index 27.78 ± 4.75 kg/m2) were divided into two groups: high and low inflammatory status for IL-6. Lower limb muscle strength was tested using bilateral leg extension with the ten repetitions maximum test, IL-6 was measured by ELISA and body composition by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry.
Results
Women classified from the high pro-inflammatory status presented lower relative muscle strength (P = 0.056) when compared with the low inflammatory status group, with no differences for absolute muscle strength (P = 0.18). There was a significant negative correlation of IL-6 with relative muscle strength (P = 0.03, R = −0.22) and a considerable trend toward significance (P = 0.06, R = −0.19) and negative association with fat-free mass (P = 0.84, R = −0.02).
Conclusions
This study provides insights that a high pro-inflammatory status in sedentary obese elderly women might impair muscle strength and negatively affect fat-free mass. Thus, elderly women classified with high pro-inflammatory status for IL-6 should receive further health care attention to prevent this deleterious condition.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Han TS, Tajar A, Lean ME (2011) Obesity and weight management in the elderly. Br Med Bull 97:169–196. doi:10.1093/bmb/ldr002
National Institutes of Health (2001) Understanding adult obesity—National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. http://win.niddk.nih.gov/publications/PDFs/adultobesbw1201.pdf. Accessed 08 Dec 2014
WHO (2014) Obesity and overweight. http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/. Accessed 08 Dec 2014
Vigitel—Vigilância de Fatores de Risco e Proteção para Doenças Crônicas por Inquérito Telefônico (2013). http://portalsaude.saude.gov.br/images/pdf/2014/abril/30/Lancamento-Vigitel-28-04-ok.pdf. Accessed 08 Dec 2014
Lee H, Lee IS, Choue R (2013) Obesity, inflammation and diet. Pediatr Gastroenterol Hepatol Nutr 16:143–152. doi:10.5223/pghn.2013.16.3.143
Bastard JP, Maachi M, Lagathu C, Kim MJ, Caron M, Vidal H, Capeau J, Feve B (2006) Recent advances in the relationship between obesity, inflammation, and insulin resistance. Eur Cytokine Netw 17:4–12
Nicklas BJ, Brinkley TE (2009) Exercise training as a treatment for chronic inflammation in the elderly. Exerc Sport Sci Rev 37:165–170. doi:10.1097/JES.0b013e3181b7b3d9
Addison O, LaStayo PC, Dibble LE, Marcus RL (2012) Inflammation, aging, and adiposity: implications for physical therapists. J Geriatr Phys Ther 35:86–94. doi:10.1519/JPT.0b013e3182312b14
Anker SD, Ponikowski PP, Clark AL, Leyva F, Rauchhaus M, Kemp M, Teixeira MM, Hellewell PG, Hooper J, Poole-Wilson PA, Coats AJ (1999) Cytokines and neurohormones relating to body composition alterations in the wasting syndrome of chronic heart failure. Eur Heart J 20:683–693. doi:10.1053/euhj.1998.1446
Goodman MN (1994) Interleukin-6 induces skeletal muscle protein breakdown in rats. Proc Soc Exp Biol Med 205:182–185. doi:10.3181/00379727-205-43695
Visser M, Pahor M, Taaffe DR, Goodpaster BH, Simonsick EM, Newman AB, Nevitt M, Harris TB (2002) Relationship of interleukin-6 and tumor necrosis factor-alpha with muscle mass and muscle strength in elderly men and women: the Health ABC Study. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 57:M326–M332. doi:10.1093/gerona/57.5.M326
Taaffe DR, Harris TB, Ferrucci L, Rowe J, Seeman TE (2000) Cross-sectional and prospective relationships of interleukin-6 and C-reactive protein with physical performance in elderly persons: MacArthur studies of successful aging. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 55:M709–M715. doi:10.1093/gerona/55.12.M709
Funghetto SS, Prestes J, Silva Ade O, Farias DL, Teixeira TG, Vieira DC, Souza VC, Sousa NM, Navalta JW, Melo GF, Karnikowski MG (2013) Interleukin-6 -174G/C gene polymorphism affects muscle damage response to acute eccentric resistance exercise in elderly obese women. Exp Gerontol 48:1255–1259. doi:10.1016/j.exger.2013.08.009
Prestes J, Tibana RA (2013) Muscular static strength test performance and health: absolute or relative values? Rev Assoc Med Bras 59:308–309. doi:10.1016/j.ramb.2013.01.009
Frontera WR, Hughes VA, Fielding RA, Fiatarone MA, Evans WJ, Roubenoff R (2000) Aging of skeletal muscle: a 12-year longitudinal study. J Appl Physiol (1985) 88:1321–1326
Field AP (2013) Discovering statistics using IBM SPSS statistics: and sex and drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, 4th edn. Sagepublications, London
Penninx BW, Kritchevsky SB, Newman AB, Nicklas BJ, Simonsick EM, Rubin S, Nevitt M, Visser M, Harris T, Pahor M (2004) Inflammatory markers and incident mobility limitation in the elderly. J Am Geriatr Soc 52:1105–1113. doi:10.1111/j.1532-5415.2004.52308.x
Ferrucci L, Penninx BW, Volpato S, Harris TB, Bandeen-Roche K, Balfour J, Leveille SG, Fried LP, Md JM (2002) Change in muscle strength explains accelerated decline of physical function in older women with high interleukin-6 serum levels. J Am Geriatr Soc 50:1947–1954. doi:10.1046/j.1532-5415.2002.50605.x
Faul F, Erdfelder E, Lang AG, Buchner A (2007) G*Power 3: a flexible statistical power analysis program for the social, behavioral, and biomedical sciences. Behav Res Methods 39:175–191
Gleeson M, Bishop NC, Stensel DJ, Lindley MR, Mastana SS, Nimmo MA (2011) The anti-inflammatory effects of exercise: mechanisms and implications for the prevention and treatment of disease. Nat Rev Immunol 11:607–615. doi:10.1038/nri3041
Barbieri M, Ferrucci L, Ragno E, Corsi A, Bandinelli S, Bonafè M, Olivieri F, Giovagnetti S, Franceschi C, Guralnik JM, Paolisso G (2003) Chronic inflammation and the effect of IGF-I on muscle strength and power in older persons. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 3:E481–E487. doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00319.2002
Westcott WL (2012) Resistance training is medicine: effects of strength training on health. Curr Sports Med Rep 11:209–216. doi:10.1249/JSR.0b013e31825dabb8
Kraemer WJ, Ratamess NA, French DN (2002) Resistance training for health and performance. Curr Sports Med Rep 1:165–171
Prestes J, Shiguemoto G, Botero JP, Frollini A, Dias R, Leite R, Pereira G, Magosso R, Baldissera V, Cavaglieri C, Perez S (2009) Effects of resistance training on resistin, leptin, cytokines, and muscle force in elderly post-menopausal women. J Sports Sci 27:1607–1615. doi:10.1080/02640410903352923
Fisher G, Bickel CS, Hunter GR (2014) Elevated circulating TNF-alpha in fat-free mass non-responders compared to responders following exercise training in older women. Biology (Basel) 3:551–559. doi:10.3390/biology3030551
Sampson JA, McAndrew D, Donohoe A, Jenkins A, Groeller H (2013) The effect of a familiarisation period on subsequent strength gain. J Sports Sci 31:204–211. doi:10.1080/02640414.2012.725134
Mann TN, Lamberts RP, Lambert MI (2014) High responders and low responders: factors associated with individual variation in response to standardized training. Sports Med 44:1113–1124. doi:10.1007/s40279-014-0197-3
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by the National Council of Scientific and Technological Development—CNPq (483549/2011-8). The authors have no conflicts of interest that are directly relevant to the content of this manuscript. In addition, the first author wants to dedicate this paper to his family (Rita de Cassia and Nicolas Cunha).
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest in this paper.
Ethical approval
The study was approved by the Institutional Research Ethics Committee (protocol #035/2011). Study design and employed procedures are in accordance with ethical standards and the Declaration of Helsinki.
Informed consent
Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
da Cunha Nascimento, D., de Sousa, N.M.F., de Sousa Neto, I.V. et al. Classification of pro-inflammatory status for interleukin-6 affects relative muscle strength in obese elderly women. Aging Clin Exp Res 27, 791–797 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-015-0349-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40520-015-0349-9