Exercise, oxidative stress and ageing

Skeletal muscle has the unique ability to increase the rate of oxygen usage during contraction. This has led several workers to suggest that by-products of this increased oxygen consumption, oxygen-derived free radicals, may be primarily responsible for exercise-induced damage to skeletal muscle. However, because of this rapidly changing redox state, skeletal muscle has developed a number of different endogenous mechanisms which adapt rapidly following a period of exercise. These include numerous structural and biochemical changes such as increased muscle activity of antioxidant enzymes and content of stress or heat shock proteins (HSPs). This adaptation is associated with protection against the potentially damaging effects of a second period of exercise. In addition, we have recently demonstrated a significant increase in free radical production during a period of nondamaging exercise, which is rapidly followed by a significant increase in the expression of antioxidant enzymes and HSPs, suggesting that a change in redox state of the muscle may act as signal for adaptation.