Does intestinal epithelial integrity status in response to high-protein dairy milk beverage with or without progressive resistance training impact systemic inflammatory responses in an active aging population?

Abstract

Increased resting systemic anti-inflammatory responses have previously been reported after a period of progressive resistance training (PRT) with daily consumption of a high-protein dairy beverage. The study aimed to investigate the independent and combined effects of consuming a high protein dairy milk beverage with or without a PRT on markers of intestinal epithelial integrity and selected systemic inflammatory responses in active older (≥50 yrs) adults. Thirty two (males n = 24, females n = 8) active older adults [mean (SD): Age 62 (7) years, weight 74.2 (14.0) kg, height 1.73 (10.0) cm, BMI 24.9 (4.0) kg/m2, and body fat mass: 25.8 (9.1)%)], that reported exercising ≥3/week (211 (91) min/week) were randomly allocated into one of four groups: dairy milk (DM), exercise and dairy milk (EX+DM), exercise alone (EX), and control (CON). Groups with EX underwent 12-weeks whole-body PRT program (x3 sessions/week), groups with DM consumed the beverage twice daily (30g protein/day), and CON was required to carry out their ad libitum dietary and exercise habits. Plasma concentrations of CRP, IL-1ß, IL-1ra, LBP, and sCD14 were determined by ELISA from samples collected at weeks 0, 6, and 12. Data were analyzed (SPSS v25.0) for group and time differences using a two-way repeated-measures ANOVA with post hoc analysis. No significant differences were observed for any of the measured plasma biomarkers. The previously observed increase in anti-inflammatory cytokine response is likely due to a muscular cellular response and not an indication of intestinal epithelial integrity disturbance and/or subsequent translocation of luminal originated pathogenic bacterial compounds.