The Effect of Omega-3 Supplementation on Caspase-3 Levels after Acute Resistance Exercise in non-athletes

Considering the potential of omega-3 in maintaining cell survival through modulating the production of oxidative stress and inflammatory factors, it seems that it can modulate apoptosis. Our purpose was to investigate the effect of omega-3 supplementation on the levels of caspase-3, as apoptosis index, in acute resistance exercise of non-athletes men.

Twelve men 18-30 years with mean weight 69 ± 7.6, height 172.4 ± 4.1 and fat percentage 18.3 ± 2.34 among non-athletes, healthy, non-smoker and normal men with no history of supplementation and medication simple randomly were selected. Then, subjects were restricted for two weeks from foods with omega-3. After this two weeks, the subjects participated in control session resistance exercise with intensity of 80% of 1RM. They consumed omega-3 daily (1800 mg of Eicosapentaenoic acid and 900 mg of Docosahexaenoic acid) for one week. On the eighth day, the subjects again performed acute resistance exercise. Blood samples were taken before and immediately after acute resistance exercise to determine the serum level of Caspase.

Results:

Caspase-3 increased after acute resistance exercise (p = 0.015) but its levels did not increase significantly after one week of omega-3 supplementation and acute exercise (p = 0.054).

It seems that a 7-day omega-3 supplementation could modify the increase caused by acute resistance exercise in caspase-3.