Biomarkers of oxidative stress in overweight men are not influenced by a combination of antioxidants

Abstract

The effect of antioxidant supplementation on biomarkers of oxidative stress was investigated in a 6-week intervention study in 60 overweight men. The supplement contained a combination of antioxidants aiming to correspond to the antioxidant content found in a diet rich in fruit and vegetables. Placebo, single or double dose of antioxidants was provided to the subjects. Metabolic variables, plasma antioxidants and biomarkers of oxidative stress (lipid peroxidation and DNA damage) were measured. No effect of supplementation on biomarkers of oxidative stress was observed. Both intervention groups showed substantial increases of plasma antioxidants. This study demonstrated that supplementation with a combination of antioxidants did not affect lipid peroxidation and DNA damage in overweight men, despite increased concentrations of plasma antioxidants. The absence of antioxidant supplement effect might possibly be explained by the chosen study group having a normal level of oxidative stress, duration of the intervention and/or doses of antioxidants.

Keywords::

• Antioxidants
• oxidative stress
• isoprostanes
• lipid peroxidation
• DNA damage
• overweight

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to Siv Tengblad, Eva Sejby, Barbro Simu, Marie Lemcke-Norojärvi, Lars-Börje Sjöberg, Karin Vågstrand, Tim Hofer and Keyvan Mirbakhsh for good cooperation and excellent technical assistance. Rawya Mohsen and Lars Berglund are acknowledged for statistical analyses. Semper AB is acknowledged for financial support. The capsules were provided by Semper AB (Stockholm, Sweden).

Declaration of interest: Elisabet Rytter was employed by the financial supporter Semper AB (employment completed 2005-01-01). Elisabet Rytter has no other conflicts of interest. All other authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.

This paper was first published online on Early Online on 11 March 2010.