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A Standardised Exercise Protocol to Induce Oxidative Stress in Humans: Validation with a Dietary Polyphenol Intervention

Kamati OV, Bragagna L, Bester DJ, Wagner KH, Stürmer V, Gassner M, Maqboul L, Louw R et al.

Nutrients, 2025

40 participants · 1 citation

Abstract

Background: Generating oxidative stress in a predictable and controllable way without the risk of causing harm is important for enabling the safe validation of interventions such as dietary polyphenols and ensuring ethical standards in human studies, while also advancing mechanisms involved in the induced oxidative stress. Although, many experimental animal and in vitro models have been developed to conduct oxidative stress-based research, to date, very few reliable human models are available. Objective: This study's main objective was to establish a standardised exercise model to induce oxidative stress in a repeatable and controllable manner and was tested with dietary polyphenols. Method: We applied a single blinded, randomised, cross-over, placebo-controlled trial with adult (25.95 ± 6.25 years) males (N = 40) where the induction of oxidative stress was achieved by an incremental aerobic exercise activity followed by a maximal anaerobic activity until exhaustion. To assess the model, rooibos polyphenolics was used as one of the interventions, while markers of safety and oxidative stress were measured on various occasions during the trial period. Results: The exercise regime reliably and repeatably induced oxidative stress, evidenced by increased levels of oxidative damage markers, i.e., oxidised glutathione (p = 0.003), malondialdehyde (p = 0.004), and a Comet assay tail moment (p p = 0.002) and the ferric reducing antioxidant potential (p Conclusions: This model showed…

How strong is the evidence?

Evidence Hub reads this as a randomized trial, done in people. Its evidence level is 2 of 5 (High · randomized trial). Randomized trials of a reasonable size are the strongest single-study design. Reported size: 40 participants or records.

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