Asthma Exercise Enhanced IL-10 Secretion but Had No Effect on IFN-É£ in Patients with Persistent Atopic Asthma

Abstract

Background: Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease which is considered as a frequent non-communicable disease that could affect the quality of life. It is widely known that Th1 and Th2 imbalance is one of the underlying pathogenesis of asthma and many approaches had been devised to interfere this process. One of the well-known non-pharmacological approaches in asthma is asthma exercise. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate the role of asthma exercises on the balance of Th1 (IFN gamma) and T-regulator (IL-10). Methods: A pre-post-test group quantitative study was conducted using 39 subjects with persistent atopic asthma. All subjects participated on asthma exercise program that was conducted twice a day, 60 min per session. Atopic status was determined by skin prick test while IFN-Æ” and IL-10 was determined by ELISA. Results: Median level of IL-10 was increased from 1.6 pg/ml before intervention to 2.2 pg/ml after intervention (p=0.000). However, the exercise program failed to produce any effect on IFN-Æ” level which only showed a slight median increase from 9.374 pg/ml before intervention to 10.238 pg/ml in the post-test analysis (p=0.07). Conclusion: Asthma exercises significantly increased IL-10 level, but not significantly affect serum IFN-Æ” in patients with persistent atopic asthma.

Keywords: Asthma exercise, IL-10, IFN-Æ”, T-h1/T-h2 balance.