Antioxidant effect of exercise: Exploring the role of the mitochondrial complex I superassembly.

Abstract

Mitochondrial respiratory complexes become assembled into supercomplexes (SC) under physiological conditions. One of the functional roles of these entities is the limitation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) produced by complex I (CI) of the respiratory chain. We sought to determine whether the systemic antioxidant effect of exercise is mediated by the assembly of mitochondrial CIs into SCs in rats. Male Wistar rats were exercise trained or remained sedentary for ten weeks; then, blood samples were collected, and the gastrocnemius muscle was isolated. The assembly of mitochondrial SCs and the lipid peroxidation of the mitochondrial and plasmatic fractions were assessed. Our results demonstrate that exercise induced the assembly of CI into SCs in the gastrocnemius and induced a systemic decrease in lipid peroxidation. We also found an inverse association between the superassembly of CIs and mitochondrial lipid peroxidation (p