The Effect of One Session Exhaustive Exercise on Hepcidin, Iron, Ferritin and Hemoglobin of Female Athletes

Abstract

Background & Objective: Females athletes are at increased risk of depleting their iron stores and iron deficiency. It has been suggested recently that hepcidin may be an important regulator of whole-body iron homeostasis. Then the purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of exhaustive exercises on hepcidin hormone, iron, ferritin and hemoglobin of female athletes. Materials & Methods: 30 female athletes were selected for the study and were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups. The participants' fasting blood samples was taken 2 h before exercise (including 3*6 repetition), just, 3 and 24 hours after exhaustive exercise. Data analysis was carried out using repeated measure and ANOVA. Results: The results showed that hepcidin increased significantly after the exercise in the experimental group (P= 0.001) and the highest increase was 3 hours after exercise (P= 0.004). Also Iron (P= 0.001), ferritin (P= 0.001) and hemoglobin (P= 0.001) increased significantly just after exercise. However, the hemoglobin value during 3 hours post exercise decreased Compared to pre exercise (P= 0.01). Conclusion: It is concluded that a session of acute exercise can increase the hepcidin and so that help to absorb and maintain of iron.

Keywords

• hepcidin
• exhaustive exercise
• female athlete