Strenuous physical exercise accelerates the lipid peroxide clearing transport by HDL

Physical exercise has cardioprotective functions, which have been partly linked to high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and its functions. We studied the effects of endogenous oxidative stress, induced by acute exhaustive physical exercise, on concentration of oxidized HDL lipids.

Twenty-four male national top-level endurance runners, 12 middle-distance runners and 12 marathon runners performed a maximal run on a treadmill until exhaustion. We analyzed concentrations of oxidized HDL (oxHDLlipids) and LDL lipids (oxLDLlipids), serum antioxidant potential (TRAP), paraoxonase activity and malondialdehyde. Venous blood samples were taken before, immediately, 15 and 90 min after exercise.

Immediately after the treadmill run the concentration of oxHDLlipids was increased by 24 % (p < 0.01). Simultaneously, the ratio of oxHDLlipids to oxLDLlipids increased by 55 % and the oxLDLlipids levels decreased by 19 % (p < 0.001), while serum malondialdehyde and TRAP increased by 54 % (p < 0.001) and 29 % (p < 0.01), respectively. After the 90 min recovery the concentration of oxHDLlipids was decreased towards the pre-exercise level, but that of oxLDLlipids remained decreased below pre-exercise values (p < 0.001). The change in oxLDLlipids after the run correlated positively with VO2max (r = 0.67, p < 0.001) and negatively with the change in paraoxonase activity (r = -0.47, p < 0.05).

We conclude that acute exhaustive physical exercise increased the concentration of oxHDLlipids and decreased that of oxLDLlipids and the ratio of oxLDLlipids to oxHDLlipids, which suggests that during physical exercise HDL has an active role in the removal of lipid peroxides.