Obje ctive: The aim of this study was to analyze the effec ts of endurance exercise training accomp anying Rosmarinus of fi cinal is Labi atae (rosemary) leaves extract on lip id peroxidatio n and antioxidative systems in t he blood of rats wi th streptozotocin-in duc ed dia betes. Met hod: To this end, 50 ma le Wist ar rats were randomly divided in to 5 groups: the sede ntary control, sede ntary diabeti c, trained diabe tic, diabeti c plus rosemary extract treatment and trained diabe tic plus rosemary extract treatment groups. Anim als in the trained groups were exercised on a t readmill 4 days a week for 8 weeks . Af ter 8 weeks , blood sa mples were taken from all an imals and analyzed for er yth-rocyte su peroxide dism utase, glut athione peroxidas e, cata lase activities and malon dialdehyde le vels. Results: Com pared to the sedentar y control group, eryth rocyte superoxide dismu tase, gluta thione peroxidas e, and cata lase activities in the sede ntary diabe tic group were signi fi cantly lower (p < 0.0 01, p <0.0 01, p< 0.0 01, respectively), wh ereas erythrocyte malon dialdehyde levels in t he sede ntary diabeti c group were signi fi cantly higher (p < 0.0 01) than those in the sedentar y control group. Due to endurance exercise with rosemary leaf extract, the antioxidan t enzy me activities and the malon dialdehyde levels in t he trained diabet ic plus rosemary extract treatment group reached the nor mal levels of those in the heal thy group. Con clusions: These data demon strated that the levels of lipid peroxidati on in t he erythrocyte of diabeti c rats were high, whereas there was a decrease in the basal ant ioxidant enzyme activities. However, rosemary extract with endurance exercise may attenuate oxidative stress by enhanc ing antioxidant enzy me ac tivities and decreasing lip id peroxidatio n levels in exper imental rats with dia betes.
