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Eur J Appl Physiol (2012) 112:33613367 DOI 10.1007/s00421-011-2296-2
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The inuence of endurance exercise on the antioxidative status of human skin
H. B. Vierck M. E. Darvin J. Lademann
A. Reihauer A. Baack W. Sterry
A. Patzelt
Received: 14 June 2011 / Accepted: 20 December 2011 / Published online: 22 January 2012 Springer-Verlag 2012
Abstract Oxidative stress is supposed to be responsible for a diversity of diseases. For protection purposes, the human organism exhibits a line-up of antioxidant substances functioning as radical catchers. As a result of neutralization of free radicals, antioxidants are destroyed. Therefore, the degradation of the antioxidants can be utilized as an indirect parameter for the measurement of free radical formation. As physical exercise may also induce oxidative stress, the aim of the present study was to determine the antioxidant substances, and more precisely, the carotenoid concentration in the skin of male volunteers during different sportive exposures (cycling and running with two different exercise intensities) with resonance Raman spectroscopic measurements. The results revealed that moderate and high intensity cycling and running decrease the carotenoid concentration of the skin, whereas
both sport disciplines and both exercise intensities revealed similar results. It can be concluded that above a certain threshold, physical exercise leads to oxidative stress also in the skin associated with the decrease in the antioxidant concentration. This gives rise to the impairment of the rst defence line of the skin and means an increase in the risk of sun exposure-induced damage, e.g., when exercise training is performed outside. Nevertheless, it has to be emphasized that sport in general applied at moderate loads has predominantly positive effects on the health of humans especially concerning cardiovascular and metabolic diseases.
Keywords Carotenoids Antioxidants Skin Sport
Introduction
Under physiological conditions, reactive oxygen species (ROS) develop in human skin during metabolic and immunological processes (Iannone et al. 1993; Maeda and Akaike 1998) or due to sun radiation (Darvin et al. 2010a, b; Zastrow et al. 2009). After genesis, they react with adjacent molecules such as lipids, proteins or nucleic acids resulting in their impairment. Hence, they are theoretically thought to be responsible for a diversity of diseases on a cellular level, such as miscellaneous malignancies (Bickers and Athar 2006; Chucair et al. 2007; Rao 2002). Furthermore,...