ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

The Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical Fitness 1998 September;38(3):262-5

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Effect of acute exercise on plasma homocysteine

Wright M. ¹, Francis K. ¹, Cornwell Ph. ²

¹ Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA; ² Department of Nutrition, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Birmingham, Alabama, USA

Background. The aim ­this ­work was to ­study the ­effects of ­acute exer­cise on plas­ma homo­cys­teine lev­el.
Methods. Twenty ­healthy, phys­i­cal­ly ­active ­males ­aged 24-39 (–X=29) ran on tread­mill at an inten­sity of 70% of ­their max­i­mal ­heart for 30 min­utes. Blood was tak­en ­before, imme­di­ate­ly fol­low­ing and 30 min­utes fol­low­ing the exer­cise ­bout.
Results. There was no sta­tis­ti­cal­ly sig­nif­i­cant rela­tion­ship ­between pre-exer­cise plas­ma homo­cys­teine lev­els and V.O2max (r= -0.05). Plasma homo­cys­teine sig­nif­i­cant­ly ­increased 11.5% ­from the pre-exer­cise to 11.6±3.3 µmol·L-1 imme­di­ate ­post exer­cise lev­els. Thirty min­utes ­postexer­cise plas­ma homo­cys­teine was ­still ele­vat­ed ­from pre-exer­cise lev­els, how­ev­er the ­mean of 11.2±2.9 µmol·L-1 was not sta­tis­ti­cal­ly dif­fer­ent ­from pre-exer­cise val­ues. The ­increase in homo­cys­teine ­that ­occurred ­with 30 min­utes of exer­cise is ­thought to be the ­result of hemo­con­cen­tra­tion as indi­cat­ed by chang­es in plas­ma albu­min. Plasma albu­min like­wise par­alleled the chang­es ­observed for homo­cys­teine. Mean pre-­ex­er­cise plas­ma albu­min val­ues ­were 42.9±2.9 g·L-1. Plasma albumin significantly ­increased 6.9% to 45.8±2.4 g·L-1 imme­di­ately ­post-exer­cise. Thirty min­utes ­post exer­cise plas­ma albu­min was ­still ele­vat­ed ­from pre-exer­cise lev­els at 44.8±5.4 g·L-1. When the homo­cys­teine plas­ma lev­els ­were adjust­ed for chang­es in plas­ma albu­min, ­there was no sta­tis­ti­cal dif­fer­ence ­between any of the ­time ­points.
Conclusions. It was con­clud­ed ­that ­acute exer­cise ­does not ­have any ­effect on plas­ma homo­cys­teine in ­young ­healthy men ­aged 24-39.