Alterações imunofisiopatológicas induzidas pelo exercício intenso durante competições de orientação

Abstract

Orienteering is an endurance race sport composed of physical and cognitive components, in which the athlete, with the aid of a map and a compass, must complete in the shortest possible time a course with several points distributed in unknown terrain. Because it deals with a sport that works both physical and cognitive, it becomes an excellent tool to study stress and its physiological and immunological changes in athletes. However, there are few studies relating the sport Orienteering and its physiological adaptations and studies evaluating the level of stress during a sports Orienteering competition and its immunological changes are nonexistent. Thus, the objective of this study was to evaluate the immunofisiopathological changes induced by intense physical exercise in athletes during a Orienteering competition. For this, 30 athletes of the elite category of Orienteering that participated in the Goiano Championship were used. To assess the physiological changes due to physical stress in these athletes, we performed physiological analyzes of body weight, body temperature and heart rate, cortisol dosage and quantification of IL-2, IL-4, IL-6, IL-10, TNF, IFN - γ and IL-17a in these athletes, before and after the competition. Data were analyzed using GraphPad Prism 6 software and based on statistical analysis of Mean and Standard Deviation. Student's t test was applied, assuming significant differences with P <0.05. In relation to the evaluation of the stress level, it was possible to observe a significant increase of the cortisol concentrations after the competition. A significant increase in IFN - γ, IL - 6, and IL - 10 concentrations in body temperature and heart rate of athletes after competition was also observed. No statistical differences were found in the body weight of the athletes and in the concentrations of the other cytokines evaluated. The results showed that Orienteering athletes are exposed to high levels of stress that alter their immune and endocrine system, triggering a predominantly anti-inflammatory response, in order to control the inflammatory response induced by intense physical exercise as a stressor. It can indicate that these athletes have mechanisms of adaptation to the stress induced by the intense physical exercise that leads to an immunoprotection instead of immunosupression in the competitors.