ABSTRACT
Because of the importance iron metabolism and role of hepcidin in running, the present study investigates the effects of one event of submaximal exercise on plasma hepcidin concentrations in male runners. For this purpose, we selected eight runners who were athletic team members of Mazandaran University with an average age of 21.7 +/- 1.34 years, height of 175.6 +/- 5.88 cm, weight of 71.7 +/- 11.13 kg and BMI of 23.2 +/- 2.95 kg/m2. Subjects ran on the treadmill at 65% heart rate reserves for 60 min and blood samples were taken before, immediately after, and at 3 and 24 h following exercise. Plasma samples were analyzed to determine the concentrations of hepcidin, IL-6, iron and ferritin. The repeated measures ANOVA with post hoc LSD were used to compare the differences between the samples. The results showed significant decrease in plasma hepcidin at 24 h postexercise compared to immediately postexercise [P < 0.05], which might be attributed to a significant decrease in plasma concentrations of IL-6 at 3 h postexercise [P < 0.05; r=0.794]. Although there were no significant differences observed in postexercise plasma iron, a dramatic increase in plasma ferritin was observed immediately, 3 and 24 h postexercise compared to pre-exercise [P < 0.05]. With regards to the lack of correlation between plasma concentrations of hepcidin and iron [P > 0.05], it can be concluded that one event of submaximal exercise does not cause significant differences on plasma hepcidin concentration immediately postexercise and it does not change in regulation of iron metabolism. This observation may be related to exercise duration and intensity