Introduction: High intensity exercise (HIE) leads to oxidative stress and muscle damage which impose detrimental effects on physiological systems leading to deterioration of athletic performance. Different training programmes are advocated as per the necessities of the specific category of athletes. Whether variation in gender and training regimen impact any significant difference on HIE induced oxidative stress and muscle damage is not well explored. HIE induced differential effects on these markers between genders have been reported in sedentary population but pertinent data are unavailable in athletic populations.

 

Aims and objectives: Studies reported the effects of strenuous exercise on oxidative stress and muscle damage parameters, but comparison in these parameters between resistance (RA) and endurance trained (EA) athletes following HIE has not yet been reported. The present study was aimed to compare the changes in redox status and muscle damage biomarkers following HIE between RA and EA. The study further explored the variation in these parameters between male and female resistance and endurance trained athletes.

 

Method: Male and female RA (n = 18) and EA (n = 18) and sedentary controls (SC) (male = 30, female = 30) were recruited in the study. They performed treadmill running at 80% of maximum heart rate (HR_max) till volitional exhaustion. Blood samples were collected before (T1), after (T2) and 48 hours after (T3) exercise. Standard biochemical protocols were used to measure superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), lipid peroxidation (LPO) and total thiols as oxidative stress markers while skeletal muscle damage was evaluated by measuring serum creatine phosphokinase (CPK), serum lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), serum aspartate aminotransferase (AST), serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) and serum C-reactive protein (CRP). Cardiac muscle damage was evaluated by measuring creatine phosphokinase-MB (CPK-MB) and high sensitivity serum CRP (hs-CRP). SPSS software was used for two way repeated measure ANOVA followed by Bonferroni post hoc analysis. Level of significance was set at p<0.05. Institutional ethical clearance (PHY/IHEC/AB/01/21, dated 16^th January 2021) was obtained as per Helsinki’s declaration.

 

Results: Significant (p<0.05) increase in oxidative stress and muscle damage was observed following HIE in all the groups. Athlete groups showed greater antioxidant capacity than the sedentary counterparts, indicating training induced adaptive protection. Females showed significantly (p<0.05) lower SOD, CAT and LPO levels than their male counterparts at T3, suggesting estrogen mediated protection against oxidative stress. But, total thiol content was significantly (p<0.05) higher in females at T2 and T3. Male groups depicted significantly (p<0.05) higher skeletal muscle damage than their female counterparts except for CRP. Athlete groups had significantly (p<0.05) higher levels of skeletal and cardiac muscle damage biomarkers than SC probably due to greater endurance capacity. Male groups depicted significantly (p<0.05) higher values of cardiac muscle damage markers than the corresponding female groups.

 

Conclusions: The study revealed that HIE increased oxidative stress and muscle damage in all the groups but results varied significantly between genders while type of training apparently did not influence the changes in these parameters. Female participants showed greater protection against oxidative stress and muscle damage probably due to hormonal and physiological variances.