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Transient Immune Impairment After a Simulated Long-Haul Flight
- Source :
- Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine. 83:418-423
- Publication Year :
- 2012
- Publisher :
- Aerospace Medical Association, 2012.
-
Abstract
- INTRODUCTION Almost 2 billion people travel aboard commercial airlines every year, with about 20% developing symptoms of the common cold within 1 wk after air travel. We hypothesize that hypobaric hypoxic conditions associated with air travel may contribute to immune impairment. METHODS We studied the effects of hypobaric hypoxic conditions during a simulated flight at 8000 ft (2438 m) cruising altitude on immune and stress markers in 52 healthy volunteers (mean age 31) before and on days 1, 4, and 7 after the flight. We did a cohort study using a generalized estimating equation to examine the differences in the repeated measures. RESULTS Our findings show that the hypobaric hypoxic conditions of a 10-h overnight simulation flight are not associated with severe immune impairment or abnormal IgA or cortisol levels, but with transient impairment in some parameters: we observed a transient decrease in lymphocyte proliferative responses combined with an upregulation in CD69 and CD14 cells and a decrease in HLA-DR in the immediate days following the simulated flight that normalized by day 7 in most instances. DISCUSSION These transient immune changes may contribute to an increased susceptibility to respiratory infections commonly seen after long-haul flights.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
Atmosphere Exposure Chambers
Aircraft
Hydrocortisone
Lymphocyte
Physiology
Immune system
Antigens, CD
medicine
Humans
Respiratory system
Hypoxia
Cortisol level
Aged
Air travel
business.industry
Altitude
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Repeated measures design
Common cold
HLA-DR Antigens
Middle Aged
Flow Cytometry
medicine.disease
Blood Cell Count
Immunoglobulin A
medicine.anatomical_structure
Immunology
Female
Immune impairment
business
Biomarkers
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00956562
- Volume :
- 83
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....4894424c464adf3a0c9aed525472cd30