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The effects of chronic administration of nandrolone decanoate on redox status in exercised rats

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Abstract

For the past 40 years, anabolic–androgenic steroids have been used by a wide variety of athletes with the hope of improving their training, endurance, and performance. The aim of this study was to examine the chronic effects of nandrolone decanoate (20 mg/kg, s.c, Deca-Durabolin DECA®) on oxidative stress biomarkers in the hearts of sedentary and exercised rats. The male Wistar albino rats (n = 180, four groups with three subgroups, 15 per subgroup, age 10 weeks, body mass 200–220 g) were sacrificed, and in the collected samples of blood, the following markers of oxidative stress were measured spectrophotometrically: (1) index of lipid peroxidation (measured as TBARS-thiobarbituric acid reactive substances); (2) nitrites (NO2 −); (3) hydrogen peroxide (H2O2); (4) superoxide anion radical (O2 −), and superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione reductase. The results clearly show that the impact of ND alone, or in combination with physical training in general, is mildly pro-oxidative. The chronic physical training probably induces the protective antioxidant enzyme system , which may be of clinical interest when faced with overdosage of this drug.

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Abbreviations

AAS:

Anabolic androgenic steroids

ND:

Nandrolone decanoate

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

RNS:

Reactive nitrogen species

NO:

Nitric oxide

·OH:

Hydroxyl radical

ROO·:

Peroxyl radical

SEM:

Standard error mean

SD:

Standard deviation

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (Grant No. 175043), and the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac (Junior Project 09/2011).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pharmacy, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Kragujevac, Serbia

    Tamara Nikolic, Nevena Jeremic & Dusan Djuric

  2. Department of Physiology, Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Kragujevac, Svetozara Markovica 69, 34000, Kragujevac, Serbia

    Vladimir Zivkovic, Ivan Srejovic & Vladimir Jakovljevic

  3. College of Health Studies in Cuprija, Cuprija, Serbia

    Maja Jevdjevic

  4. School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Marko Djuric

  5. Institute of Medical Physiology “Richard Burian”, School of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Dragan Djuric

  6. Department of Human Pathology, 1st Moscow State Medical University I.M. Sechenov, Moscow, Russia

    Sergey Bolevich

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  1. Tamara Nikolic
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  2. Vladimir Zivkovic
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Correspondence to Vladimir Jakovljevic.

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All authors of the present paper disclose no actual or potential conflicts of interest, including any financial, personal, or other relationships with people or organizations.

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Nikolic, T., Zivkovic, V., Jevdjevic, M. et al. The effects of chronic administration of nandrolone decanoate on redox status in exercised rats. Mol Cell Biochem 411, 95–105 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-015-2571-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11010-015-2571-3

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