Plasma Total Antioxidant Capacity and Cardiometabolic Risk in Non-Obese and Clinically Healthy Young Adults

BACKGROUND: The oxidative biomarkers play an important role in the genesis of cardiometabolic risk-related processes. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the total antioxidant capacity of plasma and its association with cardiometabolic risk in non-obese and clinically healthy young adults. METHODS: University students of the state of Sergipe, Brazil, aged between 18 and 25 years, were recruited for this study from May of 2013 and October of 2014. Anthropometric, clinical and biochemical parameters were measured and analyzed using protocols which were previously standardized and described in the literature. The measurement of plasma total antioxidant capacity was based on the ability that all the antioxidants present in the sample (plasma) have to inhibit the oxidation of the oxidizable substrate ABTS (2,2`- Azino-di-[3-ethylbenzthiazoline sulphonate]) to ABTS•+ by metmyoglobin. RESULTS: Approximately 25% of the sample presented more than one component of cardiometabolic risk. Low HDL-cholesterol was the most prevalent component. Compared to absence of components, the subjects with at least one component presented greater body weight and waist circumference, higher levels of diastolic blood pressure and fasting glucose, greater total cholesterol/HDL-c ratio, and lower levels of HDL-c (p < 0.05). Fasting glycemia was the only parameter which was associated with total antioxidant capacity (R(2) = 0.10; β = 0.17; p = 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The plasma total antioxidant capacity was not able to predict the cardiometabolic risk components due possibly to the establishment of compensatory mechanisms that become activated in physiological conditions.