Systemic and airways oxidative stress in competitive swimmers training in indoor chlorinated swimming pools

Introduction: Airway disorders are common among ellite athletes. Warm environment in the swimming pool is specific, because it contains chlorine and its by products which are probably inhaled from the air just above the water. The chlorine hypothesis suggest the interaction between chlorine by products with airway epithelium resulting in oxidative stress and airway inflammation. There are a few data available on the effects of these chemical structures. Aims and objectives: The aim of our study was to find out whether there is a difference in systemic and airway oxidative stress in competitive swimmers in the period of high intensity training and in non training period. We checked whether there is an impact of markers of airway oxidative stress on induced broncial hyperreactivity. Methods: We have measured concentrations of 8-isoprostanes in serum and induced sputum of 41 healthy competitive swimmers in the high training and in nontraining period. 8-isoprostane was measured with competitive ELISA. Metacholin testing was performed during the high intensity training period. Results: Swimmers in high training period have significantly higher concentrations of isoprostanes in plasma (median 52,5 pg/ml) and in induced sputum (median 923,8 pg/ml) comparing to the non training period (plasma median 11,6 pg/ml; induced sputum median 81,8 pg/ml). There was no corellation between concentrations of 8-isoprostanes in induced sputum and bronchial hyperreactivity. Conclusion: High intensity training in competitive swimmers results in marked oxydative stress at the airway and systemic level. It seems, that markers of oxidative stress are not involved in expression of induced bronchial hyperreactivity.