Abstract
Exhaustive physical exercise is associated with an increased oxidative activity and antioxidants are widely used as supplements, to prevent the deleterious effects of endogenous reactive oxygen species. The purpose of this study is to investigate exercise induced oxidative DNA damage and the possible protective effect of vitamin E supplementation. Comet assay was carried out in 23 athletes who were competitive rowers and physical education students of a Sports school. The blood samples were tested at baseline, 24h after performing maximal exercise and all subjects took antioxidant supplementation (vit E 400 IU/day) for 60 days and the above tests were repeated. The mean percentage of DNA damage in tail (% DNAT) in rowers, were higher than in physical education students, (8.32±0.51, 5.99±0.52, respectively). A significant decrease in the extent of %DNAT was observed in athletes who used vitamin E supplementation for 60 days compared to their initial DNA damage evaluations.
Highlights
Besides the many known health benefits of physical activity, exercise enhances the generation of free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) by an increase of oxygen uptake, leading to oxidative stress which can result in damage in all cellular macromolecules such as DNA, lipids, and proteins [1,2,3] and are expected to be more prominent in high intensity exercise [4,5,6]
The results of the present study demonstrate an increase in percentage of cells with tails and an increase of mean DNA migration length in peripheral blood lymphocytes of physically active athletes
This situation is in accordance with the view of Sjödin et al (1990) and Tsai et al (2001) that energy demand during strenuous physical exercise causes an increase in oxygen uptake and supply to the active tissues, and a concomitant increase occurs in free radical production (ROS) which affects the capacity of endogenous cellular defence systems to neutralize these reactive species [25,26]
Summary
Besides the many known health benefits of physical activity, exercise enhances the generation of free radicals and reactive oxygen species (ROS) by an increase of oxygen uptake, leading to oxidative stress which can result in damage in all cellular macromolecules such as DNA, lipids, and proteins [1,2,3] and are expected to be more prominent in high intensity exercise [4,5,6]. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possible DNA damaging effect of exhaustive physical exercise in students at the School of Physical Education and Sports in Turkey and to examine whether vitamin E (400 IU/day) supplementation for 60 days has an effect in oxidative damage using the comet assay
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