Experimental Guidelines for Studies Designed to Investigate the Impact of Antioxidant Supplementation on Exercise Performance

Abstract

Research interest in the effects of antioxidants on exercise-induced oxidative stress and human performance continues to grow as new scientists enter this field. Consequently, there is a need to establish an acceptable set of criteria for monitoring antioxidant capacity and oxidative damage in tissues. Numerous reports have described a wide range of assays to detect both antioxidant capacity and oxidative damage to biomolecules, but many techniques are not appropriate in all experimental conditions. Here, the authors present guidelines for selecting and interpreting methods that can be used by scientists to investigate the impact of antioxidants on both exercise performance and the redox status of tissues. Moreover, these guidelines will be useful for reviewers who are assigned the task of evaluating studies on this topic. The set of guidelines contained in this report is not designed to be a strict set of rules, because often the appropriate procedures depend on the question being addressed and the experimental model. Furthermore, because no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate in every experimental situation, the authors strongly recommend using multiple assays to verify a change in biomarkers of oxidative stress or redox balance.

Effects of exercise on alterations in redox homeostasis in elite male and female endurance athletes using a clinical point-of-care test

“…In redox biology there are numerous assays available to assess ARH (Powers et al 2010b). However, we choose the FFT on the basis of the test being a POC and thus potential for in-the-field-testing with athletes, with good reliability (Garelnabi et al 2008).…”

Improved insulin sensitivity with calorie restriction does not require reduced JNK1/2, p38, or ERK1/2 phosphorylation in skeletal muscle of 9-month-old rats

“…After the derivatization or negative control reaction, the samples were separated by SDS-PAGE and blotted with an antibody specific to the DNP moiety. We also evaluated 4-hydroxynonenal protein conjugates as a second indicator of oxidative stress (46). Proteins were separated by SDS-PAGE and probed with an anti-4-HNE antibody.…”

Oxidative stress, inflammation and recovery of muscle function after damaging exercise: effect of 6-week mixed antioxidant supplementation

“…In addition to the effects of ingesting single antioxidants, more recent studies have explored the potential benefits of mixed antioxidants that are popular commercial products and may offer better synergism between various interrelated antioxidant networks in vivo (Powers et al 2010). Most commonly, vitamin C (ascorbic acid) and vitamin E (a-tocopherol) have been co-ingested (Bloomer et al 2006(Bloomer et al , 2007Dawson et al 2002;Fischer et al 2004;Howatson et al 2009;Mastaloudis et al 2004Mastaloudis et al , 2006Petersen et al 2001;Rokitzki et al 1994), although others have examined combined vitamin C & E supplements that also include smaller quantities of vitamin A (a-/b-carotene) precursors (Kanter et al 1993;Machefer et al 2007;Schroder et al 2000) or selenium (Goldfarb et al 2005), among other ingredients (i.e.…”