Effect of prolonged exercise on oxidative damage and susceptibility to oxidants of rat tissues in severe hyperthyroidism

We investigated effects of prolonged aerobic exercise and severe hyperthyroidism on indices of oxidative damage, susceptibility to oxidants, and respiratory capacity of homogenates from rat liver, heart and skeletal muscle. Both treatments induced increases in hydroperoxide and protein-bound carbonyl levels. Moreover, the highest increases were found when hyperthyroid animals were subjected to exercise. These changes, which were associated to reduced exercise endurance capacity, were in part due to higher susceptibility to oxidants of hyperthyroid tissues. Levels of oxidative damage indices were scarcely related to changes in antioxidant enzyme activities and lipid-soluble antioxidant concentrations. However, the finding that, following exercise the scavenger levels generally decreased in liver homogenates and increased in heart and muscles ones, suggested a net shuttle of antioxidants from liver to other tissues under need. Aerobic capacity, evaluated by cytochrome oxidase activity, was not modified by exercise, which, conversely, affected the rates of oxygen consumption of hyperthyroid preparations. These results seem to confirm the higher susceptibility of hyperthyroid tissues to oxidative challenge, because the mechanisms underlying the opposite changes in respiration rates during State 4 and State 3 likely involve oxidative modifications of components of mitochondrial respiratory chain, different from cytochrome aa3.