Football training improves cardiovascular health profile in sedentary, premenopausal hypertensive women.

The present study examined the effects of short-term recreational football training on blood pressure (BP), fat mass, and fitness in sedentary, 35-50-year-old premenopausal women with mild hypertension. Forty-one untrained, hypertensive women were randomized into a football training group (n = 21; FTG) and a control group (n = 20; CON). FTG performed 45 ± 1 1-h small-sided football training sessions during the 15-week intervention period. BP, body composition (dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry), blood lipid profile, and fitness level were determined pre- and post-intervention. After 15 weeks, systolic and diastolic BP, respectively, were lowered more (P < 0.05) in FTG (-12 ± 3 and -6 ± 2 mmHg) than in CON (-1 ± 1 and 1 ± 2 mmHg). Total body fat mass decreased more (P < 0.05) in FTG than in CON during the 15-week intervention period (-2.3 ± 0.5 kg vs 0.4 ± 0.3 kg). After 15 weeks, both total cholesterol (-0.4 ± 0.1 mmol/L vs 0.1 ± 0.2 mmol/L) and triglyceride (-0.2 ± 0.1 mmol/L vs 0.3 ± 0.2 mmol/L) were lowered more (P < 0.05) in FTG than in CON. Yo-Yo intermittent endurance level 1 test performance increased more (P < 0.05) in FTG than in CON (111 ± 18% vs 1 ± 3%) during the 15-week intervention period. In conclusion, short-term football training resulted in a marked reduction in BP and induced multiple improvements in fitness and cardiovascular health profile of untrained, premenopausal women with mild hypertension.

Sex- and age-dependency of IgG auto-antibodies against IL-1 alpha in healthy humans.

Naturally occurring anti-interleukin (IL)-1 alpha IgG antibodies (Ab-IL-1 alpha) were measured in sera of 466 healthy Danish blood donors. Ab-IL-1 alpha bound IL-1 alpha with exceptionally high affinity (Kd: 10(-11) M) and neutralized both cell-associated and extracellular IL-1 alpha but not IL-1 beta or IL-1 receptor antagonist. More than 80% of the saturable binding of rIL-1 alpha to serum was to Ab-IL-1 alpha, suggesting that these antibodies are the quantitatively most important IL-1 alpha-binding components in serum. Judged by second antibody precipitation assay, the prevalence of Ab-IL-1 alpha varied between 30% and 75% and correlated positively with age (P = 0.037). The binding capacity of serum also increased with age. Although men were more frequently positive than women (P < 0.001), there were no sex- or age-dependent alterations in the average affinities of the antibodies. Free IL-1 alpha-like molecules were generally not detected in these sera. However, acid treatment showed that 25% of Ab-IL-1 alpha-positive sera contained low amounts of IL-1 alpha-Ab-IL-1 alpha immune complexes. IgG4 represented the main IgG isotype, whereas IgG3 Ab-IL-1 alpha were undetectable. The relative amounts of IgG4 Ab-IL-1 alpha increased while IgG2-and IgG1 Ab-IL-1 alpha decreased in elderly individuals. The presence in normal individuals and the lack of affinity maturation with age suggest that Ab-IL-1 alpha may be regulatory natural auto-antibodies perhaps coded by germline genes.