Effects of Caffeine Supplementation on Oxidative Stress, Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage and Leukocytosis

Background: athletes use variety of ergogenic aids such as caffeine to improve their performance. many factors such as oxidative stress, muscular-damage and decreased immune function may have negative effect on athletic performance. however effects of caffeine on mentioned factors in female athletes after supramaximal exercise are rare and obscure. methods: in this double-blind, cross-over study, 26 female basketball players supplemented with 5mg.kg-1 caffeine or dextrose as a placebo followed by wingate test. blood samples were obtained before and 5 minutes post-exercise for determining the serum malondialdehyde (mda), total antioxidant capacity (tac), creatine kinase (ck) activity and blood’s white blood cells (wbc). kolmogrov-smirnov statistic test and paired t-test were used to analyze data. results: after the wingate test, wbc, lymphocyte, granulocyte count and serum mda levels, were increased significantly in both groups(p < 0.001). no significant differences were observed in increased levels between caffeine supplemented and placebo groups(p > 0.05). furthermore the changes in ck activity and tac levels were not statistically significant in any of the groups (p > 0.05). conclusion: the findings indicated that 5mg.kg-1 caffeine supplementation did not have significant adverse effect on oxidative stress, exercise-induced muscle damage and leukocytosis after wingate test.