Risk factors and future directions for preventing and diagnosing exertional rhabdomyolysis.

Exertional rhabdomyolysis may occur when an individual is subjected to strenuous physical exercise. It is occasionally associated with myoglobinuria (i.e. "cola-colored" urine) alongside muscle pain and weakness. The pathophysiology of exertional rhabdomyolysis involves striated muscle damage and the release of cellular components into extracellular fluid and bloodstream. This can cause acute renal failure, electrolyte abnormalities, arrhythmias and potentially death. Exertional rhabdomyolysis is observed in high-performance athletes who are subjected to intense, repetitive and/or prolonged exercise but is also observed in untrained individuals and highly trained or elite groups of military personnel. Several risk factors have been reported to increase the likelihood of the condition in athletes, including: viral infection, drug and alcohol abuse, exercise in intensely hot and humid environments, genetic polymorphisms (e.g. sickle cell trait and McArdle disease) and epigenetic modifications. This article reviews several of these risk factors and proposes screening protocols to identify individual susceptibility to exertional rhabdomyolysis as well as the relevance of proteomics for the evaluation of potential biomarkers of muscle damage.

Oxidative stress biomarkers after a single maximal test in blind and non-blind soccer players.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to compare oxidative stress biomarkers, antioxidant capacity, muscle damage and hormone response between vision impaired and non-vision impaired athletes after a single maximal exercise test. METHODS: Eight vision impaired and fifteen non-vision impaired athletes performed a maximal aerobic test with blood collected before and after. RESULTS: Non-vision impaired athletes displayed greater aerobic capacity than blind individuals (P<0.05). Lactate increased by four-fold, while creatine kinase and gamma-glutamyltransferase as well as the oxidative stress biomarkers and antioxidants were unchanged. Cortisol increased, but testosterone and their ratio were not altered. Differences were observed for alanine transaminase and aspartate transaminase, which were increased only in non-blind athletes. CONCLUSIONS: Our data suggest that blind soccer players, in comparison to those with vision, experienced less cellular damage.

Protein carbonyl levels correlate with performance in elite field hockey players.

Excess and incorrectly selected exercise can degrade athletic performance from an imbalance in redox homeostasis and oxidative stress, but well-planned training and nutrition can improve antioxidant capacity. The aim of the study was to investigate how nutrient intake could influence oxidative stress and cell lesion biomarkers after 5 days of training followed by a game. Blood was collected from 10 athletes at the start of training (basal), after training (pre-game), and postgame. Their acceleration capacity also was measured pre- and postgame. Blood analysis showed an increase in lactate concentration postgame (13%) and total antioxidant capacity increased both pre-game (13.1%) and postgame (12.7%), all in comparison with basal levels. An oxidative stress marker, protein carbonyl (PC), increased 3-fold over the course of the game, which correlated with a decreased acceleration (r = 0.749). For biomarkers of tissue damage, creatine kinase and aspartate transaminase (AST) increased postgame by 150% and 75%, respectively. The AST variation had a high negative correlation with energy and carbohydrate consumption and a moderate correlation with lipid and vitamin C intake. Protein intake had a positive but moderate correlation with reduced glutathione. The observed correlations suggest that nutritional monitoring can improve exercise physiological homeostasis and that PC serves as a good biomarker for oxidative stress and performance loss.

Biomarkers of oxidative stress and tissue damage released by muscle and liver after a single bout of swimming exercise.

Both acute exercise and excessive training can cause oxidative stress. The resulting increase in free radicals and the inadequate response from antioxidant systems can lead to a framework of cellular damage. An association between affected tissue and the biomarkers of oxidative stress that appear in plasma has not been clearly established. The aim of this study was to evaluate the source of oxidative stress biomarkers found in the plasma of untrained rats after a single bout of swimming exercise at 2 different intensities: low intensity (SBLIE) or high intensity (SBHIE). Immediately after the exercise, aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), γ-glutamyltransferase (GGT), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) were measured in plasma to characterize cell damage. Oxidative stress was assessed using protein carbonylation (PC), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) quantified by malondialdehyde concentration. SBHIE raised levels of plasma AST (93%) and ALT (17%), and both exercise regimens produced an increase in GGT (7%) and LDH (∼55%). Plasma levels of PC and TBARS were greater in the SBHIE group; there were no changes in TAC. SBLIE caused only a modest increase in TBARS. In muscle, there were no changes in TAC, PC, or TBARS, regardless of exercise intensity, In the liver, TAC and TBARS increased significantly in both the SBLIE and SBHIE groups. This indicates that the oxidative stress biomarkers measured in the plasma immediately after a single bout of swimming exercise were generated primarily in the liver, not in muscle.