The Effect of High Intensity Endurance Training on Antioxidant Defense and Lipid Peroxidation of Male Wistar Rats

During high intensity sport activities, tissues like liver, kidney and intestine experience hypoxia situation due to the ischemia following physical activity that finally increases free radicals. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of 8 weeks of endurance training on glutathione peroxidase (GPX) and Malondialdehyde (MDA) of gastrocnemius muscle, heart and liver tissues in male Wistar rats. 12 male Wistar rats (mean weight= 234.47±25.97 g, age=8 weeks) were randomly divided into two groups: control (n=6) and high intensity endurance training (n=6) after one week of familiarization. Endurance training included 8 weeks, 5 sessions a week on a rodent treadmill. The speed and duration of running were 10 m/min. and 30 min. at the first week respectively and reached 35 m/min. (equal to 80-%85 of Vo2 max) and 70 min. at the last week. The results of independent t test showed that high intensity endurance training significantly decreased GPX in heart (P=0.001) and liver (P=0.001) tissues compared with the control group. Also, MDA levels of heart (P=0.03) and liver (P=0.045) tissues in training group increased significantly compared with the control group. These findings showed that different tissues have different oxidative responses to similar training, that is to say high intensity endurance training imposes oxidative stress on heart and liver tissues more than gastrocnemius muscle.