Oxidative stress associated with impaired autonomic control and severity of lung function in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients

Tichanon Promsrisuk; Orachorn Boonla; Ratchaniporn Kongsui; Napatr Sriraksa; Sitthisak Thongrong; Arunrat Srithawong

doi:10.12965/jer.2244586.293

Oxidative stress associated with impaired autonomic control and severity of lung function in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients

J Exerc Rehabil. 2023 Feb 23;19(1):75-84. doi: 10.12965/jer.2244586.293. eCollection 2023 Feb.

Authors

Tichanon Promsrisuk^{1

2}, Orachorn Boonla^{3

4}, Ratchaniporn Kongsui¹, Napatr Sriraksa^{1

2}, Sitthisak Thongrong⁵, Arunrat Srithawong⁶

Affiliations

¹ Division of Physiology, School of Medical Sciences, University of Phayao, Phayao, Thailand.
² Unit of Excellence in the Pulmonary and Cardiovascular Health Care, University of Phayao, Phayao, Thailand.
³ Faculty of Allied Health Sciences, Burapha University, Chonburi, Thailand.
⁴ Exercise and Nutrition Innovation and Sciences Research Unit, Burapha University, Chonburi, Thailand.
⁵ Division of Anatomy, School of Medical Sciences, University of Phayao, Phayao, Thailand.
⁶ Department of Physical Therapy, School of Allied Health Sciences, University of Phayao, Phayao, Thailand.

Abstract

Oxidative stress has been suggested to play a role in the pathogenesis of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). This study aimed to investigate a link between malondialdehyde (MDA) levels, pulmonary function, and cardiac autonomic control in patients with COPD. Plasma levels of MDA, heart rate variability, and pulmonary function were measured in 50 clinically stable COPD patients and 50 normal male controls. COPD patients exhibited lower means of the standard deviations of all normal to normal (NN) intervals (SDNN), the square root of the mean of the sum of the squares of differences between adjacent NN intervals (RMSSD), and high frequency (HF). Nevertheless, they presented greater low frequency (LF) and low frequency/high frequency ratio (LF/HF ratio) in supine and head-up tilt positions than controls (P<0.001). More-over, a negative correlation between MDA levels with SDNN (P<0.001) and a positive correlation with LF (P<0.01) and LF/HF ratio (P<0.05) were observed in both positions. In COPD patients, plasma MDA levels were 2.3 times greater than controls (4.33±2.03 μM vs. 1.89±0.39 μM, P<0.001), and they were inversely correlated with forced vital capacity, forced expiratory volume in 1 sec, midexpiratory flow, and peak expiratory flow (P<0.001). Our findings suggest a potential role for oxidative stress in impaired cardiac autonomic control and clinical relevance of plasma MDA levels as a predictor of severity of COPD in COPD patients.

Keywords: Autonomic dysfunction; Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; Heart rate variability; Lung function; Oxidative stress.