Studying the effect of exercise on acute inflammation in old mice

What is it about?

We studied the effect of aging and exercise on the response to sepsis in older mice. Sepsis is a systemic infection that can lead to dysfunction in many organs, ultimately leading to death. It is more prevalent in the older population. We studied this concept in mice that were of an age equivalent to a human age of 65years. We were specifically interested if exercise could have a protective effects against sepsis in these older mice. The results provided strong evidence that exercise was indeed protective against the inflammation induced by sepsis in these animals.

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Why is it important?

There are two important aspects to our studies: First, sepsis is a complex disease that affects multiple organs by various mechanisms, making the design of effective pharmacological approaches virtually impossible. An approach by which the body is better equipped to deal with sepsis may be a more achievable approach. In this regard, our study add to the collective evidence of the beneficial effects of exercise. Second, we utilized age-appropriate animals in our study. This is important to fully understand disease development as it relates to the human situation.

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