Abstract
African-Americans are at a significantly greater risk for developing several diseases
and conditions. These conditions often have underlying oxidative stress mechanisms.
Therefore the purpose of this investigation was to ascertain the post-exercise oxidative
response to a single bout of aerobic exercise in African-American and Caucasian college-age
females. A total of 10 African-American and 10 Caucasian females completed the study.
Each subject had her VO2 max measured while exercising on a treadmill. A week later, each subject returned
to the laboratory and performed a 30-min run at 70% of her VO2max. Blood samples were taken immediately prior to and following exercise for analysis.
Lipid hydroperoxides, protein carbonyls, malondialdehyde, xanthine oxidase, glutathione
in the reduced (GSH) and oxidized (GSSG) forms, TNFα and interleukin 6 were measured
from blood taken before and after exercise. Significance was set at p≤0.05 a priori. Xanthine oxidase was the only measure that did not significantly increase following
exercise. All other markers showed a significant elevation in response to the exercise
bout with no difference between groups except that the Caucasian group had significantly
higher malondialdehyde post-exercise compared to the African-American group. This
cohort of college-age African-American and Caucasian females showed little difference
in their response to a single 30-min run at 70% of their max in the markers of oxidative
stress within the blood.
Key words
glutathione - lipid hydroperoxides - malondialdehyde - protein carbonyl - xanthine
oxidase - interleukin 6
