effect of aerobic exercise on the expression of inflammation-related genes tnf-α, il-6, and il-10 in overweight individuals

Aerobic exercise has been proposed as a non-pharmacological intervention to modulate inflammatory gene expression, yet the molecular mechanisms remain incompletely understood. this study investigated the effects of a 12-week moderate-intensity aerobic exercise intervention on the mrna expression levels of inflammation-related genes (tnf-α, il-6, and il-10) in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (pbmcs) of overweight individuals. forty-five overweight adults (bmi 25-29.9 kg/m²) were randomly assigned to either an aerobic exercise group (n=30) or a sedentary control group (n=15). the exercise protocol consisted of supervised moderate-intensity aerobic training (60-75% hrmax) for 45-60 minutes, 5 days per week for 12 weeks. blood samples were collected pre- and post- intervention for gene expression analysis using quantitative real-time pcr and protein quantification via elisa. following the 12-week intervention, the exercise group demonstrated significant reductions in tnf-α mrna expression (−52.3%, p<0.001) and il-6 expression (−47.8%, p<0.001) compared to baseline. conversely, il-10 expression increased significantly (+68.4%, p<0.001). plasma protein concentrations paralleled these changes, with tnf-α decreasing from 8.6±2.1 to 4.9±1.3 pg/ml (p<0.001), il-6 from 5.8±1.7 to 3.2±0.9 pg/ml (p<0.001), and il-10 increasing from 3.1±0.8 to 5.6±1.2 pg/ml (p<0.001). body mass index decreased significantly in the exercise group (−2.3 kg/m², p<0.001) with concurrent improvements in cardiorespiratory fitness (vo₂max increased by 18.7%, p<0.001). moderate-intensity aerobic exercise effectively modulates the inflammatory gene expression profile in overweight individuals by downregulating pro-inflammatory genes (tnf-α and il-6) and upregulating the anti- inflammatory gene (il-10). these molecular adaptations may contribute to reduced inflammation and improved metabolic health in this population.