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Department of Physiology (Animal Physiology), Faculty of Science, University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain.

1. Exercise provokes changes in the immune system, including macrophage activity. Chemotaxis is a necessary function of macrophages if they are to reach the focus of infection and strenuous acute exercise may modulate chemotaxis. However, the precise mechanisms remain unknown. 2. Three experiments were performed in the present study. (1) The effect of strenuous acute exercise (swimming until exhaustion) on the chemotactic capacity of macrophages was evaluated. (2) Peritoneal macrophages from control mice were incubated with plasma from exercised mice or control (no exercise) mice. The differences in the resulting chemotactic capacity were measured. (3) Changes in the concentration of plasma corticosterone and prolactin after exercise were also measured, and the effect of incubation with the post-exercise levels of plasma corticosterone and prolactin on the chemotactic capacity of the peritoneal macrophages was then studied in vitro. 3. Exercise induced an increase in the macrophage chemotaxis index (103 +/- 8 vs. 47 +/- 11 in controls). Incubation with plasma from exercised mice led to an increased level of chemotaxis (68 +/- 18 vs. 40 +/- 6 with plasma from controls). Incubation with concentrations of corticosterone and prolactin similar to those observed in plasma immediately after exercise (corticosterone, 0.72 mumol l-1; prolactin, 88 pmol l-1) raised the chemotactic capacity with respect to that following incubation with the basal concentrations of the hormones in control animals (90 +/- 9 vs. 37 +/- 4 for corticosterone; 72 +/- 9 vs. 41 +/- 4 for prolactin). 4. It is concluded that corticosterone and prolactin may mediate the increased chemotaxis of peritoneal macrophages induced by exercise.