The Effect of Endurance Swimming Plus Vitamin C Supplement on Oxidative Stress and Muscles Damage Indices in Male Wistar Rats

Research suggests that the effects of endurance training and supplementation with vitamin C on oxidative stress and muscle damage is associated with conflicting results that can be affected by the level of exercise and the amount and type of antioxidant supplements consumed. The aim of the present research was to study the effect of endurance swimming training with the consumption of a vitamin C supplement on indices of oxidative stress and muscle damage in male Wistar rats. Twenty-four male Wistar rats with body weights of 275±25 g were randomly divided into four groups of six: training (T), training with vitamin C (T+VC), control (C), and control with vitamin C (C+VC). Training groups swam for one hour per day and five days per week for 10 weeks. A vitamin C supplement 100 mg/kg b w solution with water rats and started one week before the training protocol began and continued to the end of the tenth week. To indicate the variables of catalase (CAT), malondyaldahide (MDA), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), uric acid (UA), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), and creatine kinase (CK), blood sampling was done on vena cava one day after the end of the training protocol. The results were analyzed using the one-way ANOVA followed by a Tukey test. The significance level was less than 0.05. The results of this research indicated that the T+VC group showed a significant reduction in the level of MDA compared with the C group (P=0.008). A significant increase in the level of TAC was observed in the C+VC group compared with the T group (P=0.03). Both the T and T+VC groups indicated significant increases in the levels of LDH and CK compared with both the C and C+VC groups (P=0.001). In sum, the results indicate that the consumption of vitamin C can decrease the lipid peroxidation and increase the level of TAC, and is ineffective on enzyme and non-enzyme antioxidants and muscle damage.