Professional Swimmers and Normal Populations have Different Patterns of Epidermal Green Autofluorescence

Our recent studies have suggested that green autofluorescence of the fingernails and certain regions of skin may be novel biomarkers for disease diagnosis and evaluation of the injury state of cardiovascular system. Our study has also suggested that oxidative stress may produce the increased epidermal green AF by altering keratin 1. Since the body of athletes may have increased oxidative stress and inflammation, we proposed our hypothesis that athletes may have increased green AF in their fingernails and certain regions of their skin. In current study we tested this hypothesis by determining the green AF of professional swimmers. We found that compared with age-matched controls, both the green AF intensity and AF asymmetry in both right and left antebrachium and Ventriantebrachium of the professional swimmers is significantly higher. In left Dorsal Centremetacarpus, the green AF intensity of the professional swimmers is significantly higher than that of the age-matched controls. In contrast, the green AF intensity or AF asymmetry of the professional swimmers is not significantly different from that of the age-matched controls in Centremetacarpus, Ventroforefinger, Dorsal Index Finger and Index Fingernails. Collectively, our study has provided first evidence suggesting that athletes have increased green AF intensity and asymmetry in certain regions of their skin. Based on this finding, we may evaluate non-invasively the levels of oxidative damage and inflammation in the body of athletes.