Effects of treadmill training combined with Vitamin C or estradiol on Nitric Oxide metabolite, oxidative stress marker and liver enzymes levels in rat

Introduction: The production of Reaction Oxygen Species (ROS), lowers cellular antioxidant levels, and enhances oxidative stress in many tissues, especially the liver. Efficient liver function is extremely important to the overall health. The key to helping prevent long-term damage is to decrease oxidative stress. The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of treadmill training with vitamin C or estradiol on nitric oxide metabolite, oxidative stress marker and liver enzymes levels in female rat. Methods: Thirty two female rats were randomly divided into four groups of 8 rats each; consisting of control (Con), training (Tr), training + vitamin C (Tr+VitC), and training+estradiol (Tr+Es) groups. Vitamin C (250 mg/kg/day) was injected three times a week for 6 weeks, and estradiol (0.25 mg/kg/week) was injected for the two first weeks. Training groups performed aerobic exercise on a treadmill 5 days/week for 6 weeks. Serum and liver tissue levels of nitrite and malondialdehyde (MDA), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alanine aminotransferase (ALT) in serum were determined. Results: The results showed significant reductions in the serum nitrite in Tr+VitC group (6.33±0.37µmole/l) compared with Con group (9.67± 1.39 µmole/l) and Tr group (9.91± 1.33 µmole/l) groups. While Tr group (0.22±0.02 µmole/l) exhibited lower liver nitrite compared with Con group (0.29±0.01 µmole/l) group. Serum MDA in Tr (6.68±0.31 µmole/l) and Tr+VitC (7.01±0.44 µmole/l) groups was significantly higher than in Con groups (5.20± 0.40 µmole/l). Conclusion: Our findings indicate that the treadmill training program used in this study was able to attenuate the liver oxidative stress but administration of vitamin C or estradiol couldn’t improve liver status.