Inflammatory protein fell with exercise in older women
A 48-week swimming intervention completed by 72 women over 65 improved physical function; an inflammatory protein fell in a small blood-test subset.
Our read
Interventions- Studied:
- Trial in people (48 weeks, controlled)
- What changed:
- The inflammatory protein CXCL2 fell in women who exercised but rose in women who did not
- The catch:
- Only women who completed follow-up were analyzed, excluding those who dropped out
- In the record:
- The 3,323rd paper on exercise with results in people; 9,898 on record in all.
Editor of record: Boris Djordjevic · AgingResearch.News
Women over 65 with or without sarcopenia, a muscle-wasting condition, took part in a controlled exercise intervention. Researchers assigned 96 women to exercise or non-exercise groups and analyzed the 72 who completed follow-up. Swimming sessions lasted about an hour, three times weekly, for 48–52 weeks.
Women who exercised improved strength, mobility and endurance, while non-exercisers declined. Blood tests in a subset of six participants showed that CXCL2, an inflammatory signaling protein, fell with exercise but rose without it. Higher CXCL2 levels were also linked to more severe sarcopenia in a separate human analysis. In rat muscle cells grown in the lab, blocking CXCL2 signaling reduced the activity of genes associated with muscle wasting.
Why it matters
Chronic inflammation contributes to age-related muscle wasting. The authors identified CXCL2 signaling as a promising target for limiting sarcopenia.
Caveats
The analysis included only women who completed follow-up, rather than all 96 assigned to groups. The intervention did not test whether lowering CXCL2 caused the functional gains, and its findings do not cover men or younger adults.
Exercise is part of Bryan Johnson's Blueprint
The paper
Pusan National University
Journal of Sport and Health Science, Jul 22, 2026, Open access
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