We hypothesized that overloaded training (OT) in triathlon would induce oxidative stress and damage on muscle and DNA. Nine male triathletes and 6 male sedentary subjects participated in this study. Before and after a 4-week OT, triathletes exercised for a duathlon. Blood ratio of reduced vs. oxidized glutathione (GSH/GSSG), plasma thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS), leukocyte DNA damage, creatine kinase (CK), and CK-MB mass in plasma, erythrocyte superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity, erythrocyte and plasma glutathione peroxidase (GSH-Px) activities, and plasma total antioxidant status (TAS) were measured before and after OT in pre- and postexercise situations. Triathletes were overloaded in response to OT. In rest conditions, OT induced plasma GSH-Px activity increase and plasma TAS decrease (both p < 0.05). In exercise conditions, OT resulted in higher exercise-induced variations of blood GSH/GSSG ratio, TBARS level (both p < 0.05), and CK-MB mass (p < 0.01) in plasma; and decreased TAS response (p < 0.05). OT could compromise the antioxidant defense mechanism with respect to exercise-induced response. The resulting increased exercise-induced oxidative stress and further cellular susceptibility to damage needs more study.

Although alpha-tocopherol did not appear to affect the survival and motor function in ALS, patients receiving riluzole plus alpha-tocopherol remained longer in the milder states of the ALS Health State scale and showed, after 3 months, changes in biochemical markers of oxidative stress. Further studies are required to confirm the greater sensitivity of the ALS Health State scale over other clinical endpoints.

The determination of thiobarbituric acid reactants (TBARs) is a widely used method for investigating overall lipid peroxidation. An assay kit that could be used with plasma and lipid fractions would facilitate standardization of the method. The results reported here indicate that the malondialdehyde (MDA) kit manufactured by Sobioda (Grenoble, France) complies with criteria of good analytical practices. The detection limit was 0.11 mumol of MDA per liter of plasma. The within-run (CV = 1.8-3.3%) and between-run (CV = 3.3-4.4%) precisions were acceptable. The analytical recovery of MDA after supplementing human plasma samples with tetraethoxypropane standards varied from 88% to 100%. The mean (SD) lipoperoxide concentration determined in 32 healthy adults, ages 20-40 years, was 2.51 (0.25) mumol/L. No significant sex-related difference was noted: 2.57 (0.28) in men vs 2.44 (0.20) mumol/L in women. Applying the method to lipid fractions showed that lipoprotein fractions contain relatively little MDA: 0.07 (0.03) mumol/L of plasma for very-low-density lipoproteins and 0.19 (0.10) mumol/L for low-density lipoproteins.

No abstract

During TT, antioxidant supplementation at nutritional doses reinforces antioxidant status response to exercise, with an effect on exercise-induced oxidative stress, and no effect on oxidative damage.