Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) has been used for the detection of post-exercise changes in blood serum resulting from participation in the CrossFit (CF) training combined with green tea extract (GTE) supplementation. Blood samples from 20 well-trained men were collected at rest, immediately post-exercise and after 1 h of recovery in two trials: first before and second after CF training combined with GTE or placebo administration in the supplemented (S) and control (C) groups, respectively. Selected muscle damage biomarkers have been compared in different phases of the experiment. A significant increase in blood lactate content has been observed post-exercise in both trials in both participants' groups. The opposite trends have been noted for the C and S groups in creatine kinase (CK) activity changes recorded during the first to the second trial: an increase in CK for the control and a decrease for the supplemented group in all phases of the experiment: pre-exercise, post-exercise and after recovery. In the second trial, all CK values for the S group have been found significantly lower than the corresponding values recorded in the C group. These results suggest a mitigate effect of GTE supplementation on post-training muscle damage. DSC results did not reveal clear effects of training nor GTE supplementation on serum denaturation transition. However, interesting dependences of thermodynamic parameters describing this transition have been observed in different phases of the experiment. Statistically significant negative correlations have been found between post-training VO 2max and post-exercise thermodynamic parameters associated with haptoglobin contribution to serum denaturation transition.

Blood plasma and serum are important diagnostic materials as they clearly reflect an individual’s metabolism. The study has evaluated the effect of whole-body cryostimulation (WBC) on the blood serum of professional cross-country skiers. The experiment involved eight athletes (two women and six men) who underwent a series of ten WBC treatments. Aqueous solutions of human blood serum samples before WBC procedures, after one treatment and after a series of ten treatments were measured by means of differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), a relatively novel diagnostic tool. DSC results showed rather little impact of cryostimulation on heat capacity changes accompanying the process of thermal denaturation of blood serum proteins in elite athletes. However, the statistically significant reduction in the intensity of the serum denaturation transition in its low temperature range has been observed after ten WBC treatments. The results have been interpreted by changes in the serum proteome profile, notably in the ratio of ligated to unligated albumin molecules. As a side result, the relationships between the relative change in body fat mass after ten WBC treatments and the levels of alpha2-globulins and beta2-globulins fractions have been found.

In sport medicine, cryostimulation is used to help athletes to better support the training workload, to prevent the deleterious effects of strenuous exercise and to improve recovery. In this study, eight elite crosscountry skiers had two experimental exercise sessions differing in that the second one was carried out after a series of 10 whole-body cryostimulation (WBC) treatments. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was applied to compare changes in athlete's blood serum during both sessions. Mean DSC curves of serum collected in four stages of the training session: before exercise, after exercise, at 1 h recovery and after 24 h of rest have shown a similar nature of post-exercise changes and recovery regardless of the WBC. Statistically significant effect of the exercise, reflected in some parameters of serum denaturation transition, has been found. Too small number of participants in our study did not allow to verify the hypothesis that WBC favorably modifies athletes' reaction to the effort and improves post-exercise recovery, but such trends emerged.