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Background: Spinal cord injury (SCI) triggers a signalling cascade that produces oxidative stress and damages the spinal cord. Voltammetry is a clinically accessible technique to detect, monitor, and guide correction of this potentially reversible secondary injury mechanism. Voltammetry is well suited for clinical translation because the method is inexpensive, simple, rapid, and portable. Voltammetry relies on the measurement of anodic current from a reagent-free, electrochemical reaction on the surface of a small electrode., Methods: The present study tested the use of new disposable carbon nanotube based screen printed electrodes (CNT-SPE) for the voltammetric measurement of antioxidant current (AC). Spinal cord, cerebrospinal fluid, and plasma were obtained from Sprague-Dawley rats after SCI. Locomotor function after SCI was assessed by using the Basso, Beattie, Bresnahan (BBB) score., Results: The more severe SCI caused a decline in spinal cord AC 419 at 10 minutes (P < 0.05), 4 hours (P < 0.0001), and 1 day (P < 0.01) after injury compared with sham controls. It also caused a decline in plasma AC 375 at 1 (P < 0.001) and 3 days (P < 0.05) after injury compared with their pre-injury baseline. Spinal cord AC 419 correlated with plasma AC 375 (r = 0.49, P < 0.01) and BBB score (r = 0.66, P < 0.0001) at 1 day after SCI., Conclusions: AC measured by CNT-SPE demonstrated a time- and severity-dependent decline after SCI. Plasma AC could serve as a surrogate marker for spinal cord AC., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Polyphenols exert physiological effects that may impact athletic performance. Polyphenols are antioxidants that have been noted to hinder training adaptations, yet conversely they stimulate stress-related cell signalling pathways that trigger mitochondrial biogenesis and influence vascular function., Objective: To determine the overall effect of polyphenols on human athletic performance., Methods: A search strategy was completed using MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, AMED and SPORTDiscus in April 2016. The studies were screened and independently reviewed by two researchers against predetermined criteria for eligibility. As a result of this screening, 14 studies were included for meta-analysis. Of these, the studied populations were predominately-trained males with an average intervention dose of 688 ± 478 mg·day -1 ., Results: The pooled results demonstrate polyphenol supplementation for at least 7 days increases performance by 1.90% (95% CI 0.40-3.39). Sub-analysis of seven studies using quercetin identified a performance increase of 2.82% (95% CI 2.05-3.58). There were no adverse effects reported in the studies in relation to the intervention., Conclusion: Overall the pooled results show that polyphenols, and of note quercetin, are viable supplements to improve performance in healthy individuals.