We investigated possible immunological changes in 15 professional football players
before, during and after the sports season. We studied the leucocyte count as well
as different functions such as T-lymphocyte proliferation, NK activity, che-motaxis
and phagocytosis of neutrophils. Training and competitions did not produce any change
in the total number of leucocytes but increased neutrophil counts and decreased T4
lymphocyte counts. We also observed a slight decrease of T-lymphocyte proliferation
and a significant decrease of neutrophil functions. On the other hand, training and
competitions did not induce significant changes in the number of NK cells nor in the
total NK cytotoxic activity. The different change observed tended to normalize after
the sports season. Our results suggest a predominant neutrophil function depression
in football players during a training season which could partly explain the susceptibility
of elite athletes to infections.
Key words
Football players - neutrophil functions - immune functions
