Is exercise beneficial to the inflammatory bowel diseases? An implication of heat shock proteins.

Inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) cause the intestines to become inflamed (red and swollen) and typically include Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis. Heat shock protein (Hsp)70, which exhibits greater expression in the intestines of patients with IBD, may act to protect the intestine against this inflammatory insult. However, most procedures for eliciting this protective response, such as heating and/or pharmacological interventions are non-physiological and can have serious side-effects. Exercise is a biologically relevant means of inducing protective heat shock proteins in the myocardium and other organs but it has yet to be studied in the bowel. We herein hypothesize that (1) exercise will be beneficial in reducing the occurrence of IBD and suppressing intestine inflammatory injuries, (2) exercise will provide protection through induction of anti-inflammatory Hsps. Further studies using both genetically manipulated animal models and animals undergoing exercise are needed to determine the efficacy of exercise and the role of Hsps in inhibiting or treating inflammatory bowel disease.