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Eight week moderate exercise training program increases plasmatic total antioxidant status in rats stressed by immobilization

Abstract:

In recent years it has been shown that psychological stress induced by immobilization may change the balance between pro-oxidant and antioxidant factors inducing oxidative damage. On the other side, contradictory views exist concerning the role of physical activity on redox metabolism. The present work was designed to assess the influence of an 8-wk moderate swimming training program in stressed rats. Sixty male albino Wistar rats were used in this experimental study. They were divided into three groups as Controls (lot A; n=20), Stressed (lot B; n=20) and Stressed & Exercised (lot C; n=20). Rats were stressed by placing the animals in a 25x7 cm plastic bottle 1 h/day, 5 days a week for 8 weeks. Plasmatic total antioxidant status (TAS) was determined in their blood using commercial test kits supplied by Randox laboratories. Plasmatic TAS was significantly decreased in rats stressed by immobilization when compared to controls (0.58±0.02 vs 0.86±0.03; p=0.018) clearly indicating that psychological stress was associated to oxidative stress. The most striking feature of our study was that we also found significant differences between stressed rats and stressed rats that performed our 8 week training program (0.58±0.02 vs 0.73±0.02; p=0.027). Our results highlight the potential benefit of moderate training program to reduce oxidative damage induced by psychological stress since it attenuated TAS changes. Further studies concerning other variables are required to increase the knowledge about the influence of moderate exercise in oxidative stress. Copyright © Hellenic Society of Haematology.