Red Blood Cell Changes and Exercise in Veterans with GWI

EAST ORANGE, NJ – Some types of altered red blood cells can affect patients’ ability to safely exert themselves. It has been unknown, however, whether that was the case with altered red blood cell (RBC) deformability reported in veterans with Gulf War Illness (GWI).

A study published in Life Sciences journal took a close look at Gulf War patients with exercise-induced symptom exacerbation and fatigue. The goal was to evaluate RBC deformability in veterans with and without GWI by measuring their response to maximal exercise.¹

Leading the research was the Airborne Hazards and Burn Pits Center of Excellence, War Related Illness and Injury Study Center at the VAs New Jersey Health Care System in East Orange, NJ, and the New Jersey Medical School, Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences in Newark, NJ.

Included in the research were 17 veterans with GWI and 11 controls who performed maximal exercise and provided blood samples –pre-, immediately post- and 60-min post-exercise. Researchers calculated RBC deformation at infinite stress (EIMAX), shear stress for half-deformation (SS1/2) and their ratio (SS1/2/EIMAX) via repeated measures ANOVA with group and time as factors.

“A moderate interaction effect (p = 0.08, η2p = 0.10), large main effect for group (p = 0.02, η2p = 0.19) and moderate main effect for time (p = 0.20, η2p = 0.06) were observed for EIMAX, but only the main effect for group reached statistical significance,” the authors wrote. “Changes in SS1/2 and SS1/2/EIMAX over time were similar between cases and controls as were main effects.”

The authors concluded that “veterans with GWI had more deformable RBCs in comparison to controls that was unaffected by maximal exercise. Future studies to confirm our findings and identify associated mechanisms are warranted.”

1. Qian W, Klein-Adams JC, Ndirangu DS, Chen Y, Falvo MJ, Condon MR. Hemorheological responses to an acute bout of maximal exercise in Veterans with Gulf War Illness. Life Sci. 2021 Jun 16:119714. doi: 10.1016/j.lfs.2021.119714. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 34146554.