Antioxidant status as the marker of the health in students in the time of their intensive intellectual activities

Currently, the implementation of innovative non-invasive methods for controlling the state of the human organism under stress conditions is highly actual. Long-time intellectual burdens lead to the chronic stress and may result in the exhaustion of antioxidant system. The aim of the research is to study the characteristics of the antioxidant status in saliva under the conditions of intensive intellectual activities. In order to carry out the experiment, we collected the cohort of 123 students aged from 20 to 22 years of the second and third years of the V.F. Voino-Yasenetsky Krasnoyarsk State Medical University. The examined materials, namely saliva, had been taken by direct spitting into test-tubes. Saliva was collected twice: firstly background sampling had been taken during the course of regular classes when the students were supposed to be in the state of emotional balance; secondly, the test sampling had been made in the time of examination session characterized by considerable intellectual burdens. We carried out questionnaire survey for the students using Spielberger-Hanin and Nemchin-Taylor tests. With the help of these tests, we determined the situational and personal anxiety as well as the predisposition to stress development. Antioxidant status was evaluated by Н₂О₂-luminol-dependent chemiluminescence technique. Chemiluminescent tests were performed by tablet luminometer TriStar LB 941, (made by Berthold). We had proved the existence of the association between the antioxidant status of saliva and the state of intellectual tension. We have noted that during a session in a group with the high level of uneasiness indices have grown, in a group with the low level of uneasiness they have decreased. We can suppose that in the time of examination sessions there is an increase in the common level of anxiety under the lowering of antioxidant activity. In intellectual stress, the antioxidant system performs the interception of radicals less intensively, because the speed of active forms of oxygen (AFO) neutralization is decreased. So, under the conditions of intensive intellectual activities, the degradation of antioxidant protection is observed. It is caused, supposedly, by the lowering of the activity of the enzymes of peroxidase protection. The pro-oxidant system also works less efficiently. This is confirmed by the decline of such markers of CL-fluorescence as maximum intensity, amplitude and light sum, which showed AFO number.