The effect of eight weeks aerobic training and exhaustive exercise on salivary and blood antioxidant enzymes in sedentary men

Some studies suggest that saliva could be a good alternative to blood in medical research and sport sciences. Therefore, the aim of the present research was to evaluate the effects of aerobic training and a single bout exhaustion exercise on blood and salivary superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase (CAT) levels in non-active men.Twenty-seven healthy men (18-21 years) were randomly allocated to training (n=15, three training sessions per week, for 8 weeks, running at 50-70% of Heart Rate Reserve) or control (n=12) groups. After the training course, they performed acute exhaustive exercise on treadmill. Blood and salivary samples that collected at pre- and post-training period and also after exhaustive exercise, were analyzed for SOD, CAT and GPx levels. Data were analyzed by analysis of variance (ANOVA) with repeated measure, Bonferroni as post-hoc test and Pearson correlation at P0.05). Salivary and blood SOD activity significantly increased after the exhaustive exercise in both control and training groups (p˂0.05). Salivary CAT and GPx levels were not significantly altered by training and exhaustive exercise in both groups (p>0.05). Generally, aerobic training could lead to promote antioxidant enzymes in blood and SOD in saliva. Also, salivary and blood SOD activity increases in response to exhaustive exercise. However, in order to use saliva as a non-invasive method in exercise and sport studies, more research is needed.