Abstract
ABSTRACTObjectives: Physical exercise significantly impacts the biochemistry of the organism. Ubiquinone is a key component of the mitochondrial respiratory chain and ubiquinol, its reduced and active form, is an emerging molecule in sport nutrition. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of ubiquinol supplementation on biochemical and oxidative stress indexes after an intense bout of exercise.Methods: 21 male young athletes (26 + 5 years of age) were randomized in two groups according to a double blind cross-over study, either supplemented with ubiquinol (200 mg/day) or placebo for 1 month. Blood was withdrawn before and after a single bout of intense exercise (40 min run at 85% maxHR). Physical performance, hematochemical parameters, ubiquinone/ubiquinol plasma content, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, mitochondrial membrane depolarization, paraoxonase activity and oxidative DNA damage were analyzed.Results: A single bout of intense exercise produced a significant increase in most hematochemical indexes, in particular CK and Mb while, on the contrary, normalized coenzyme Q10 plasma content decreased significantly in all subjects. Ubiquinol supplementation prevented exercise-induced CoQ deprivation and decrease in paraoxonase activity. Moreover at a cellular level, in peripheral blood mononuclear cells, ubiquinol supplementation was associated with a significant decrease in cytosolic ROS while mitochondrial membrane potential and oxidative DNA damage remained unchanged.Discussion: Data highlights a very rapid dynamic of CoQ depletion following intense exercise underlying an increased demand by the organism. Ubiquinol supplementation minimized exercise-induced depletion and enhanced plasma and cellular antioxidant levels but it was not able to improve physical performance indexes or markers of muscular damage.
Highlights
Clinical studies suggest that the beneficial effects of regular physical exercise rely on the intensity of the work-load performed [1,2,3]
In particular we focused on the Coenzyme Q10 plasma content and its oxidative status, activity of the antioxidant and antiinflammatory enzyme paraoxonase-1, and muscle damage indexes; we evaluated the effect of 200 mg/day ubiquinol supplementation for 1 month on the biochemical profiles modulated by physical exercise
Our results indicate that intense exercise produces a significant depletion in lipoprotein CoQ10 content, that likely corresponds to an enhanced request by tissue compartments
Summary
Clinical studies suggest that the beneficial effects of regular physical exercise rely on the intensity of the work-load performed [1,2,3]. While mild workload may not be sufficient to produce significant ergogenic adaptive effects, workload exceeding the subject-specific threshold could be associated with inefficient recovery leading to a decline in physical performance, a condition known as overtraining. In both conditions, reactive oxygen species (ROS) represent key modulators of cellular physiology triggering adaptive responses when produced in limited amounts but detrimental when they are produced in excess, leading to oxidative stress and cellular dysfunction [4]. The exercising muscle produces much larger amounts of ROS compared to the muscle at rest [8,9]. On the other hand regular physical exercise stimulates endogenous antioxidant defense enzymes such as superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase [13] representing de-facto an ideal antioxidant [14,15]
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