Effect of exercise, synthetic anabolic steroids and protein intake on DNA damage in trained and untrained men

The role of exercise in oxidative stress and genomic damage was evaluated as the main target population of ASS and protein supplement in usually physical active individuals. Therefore, the purposes of this study were to determine the effects of exercise and abuse of synthetic anabolic steroids and food supplements on micronuclei frequency in buccal cells and 8-hydroxy-2-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) as markers for DNA damage. The study included one hundred males aged 17–44 years, distributed into five distinct groups including Group I: 20 bodybuilder individuals with AAS consumption, Group II: 20 bodybuilder individuals with diet supplement (proteins) consumption. Group III: 20 bodybuilders without AAS and diet supplement (proteins) consumption, Group IV: 20 football players without AAS and proteins consumption, and Group V 20 non-athletes without diet supplement or AAS consumption. The mean age + standard deviation (SD) of groups I, II, III, IV and V were (27.00 ± 5.53, 27.85 ± 5.60, 29.70 ± 8.04, 22.35 ± 3.89 and 26.05 ± 6.42, respectively. The mean of BMI values was significantly different among groups (p