Adjuvant arthritis in rats, as rheumatoid arthritis in humans, may be of greater or lesser severity, namely polyarthritis and monoarthritis, respectively. The present study was planned to evaluate the oxidative changes in the blood and specifically in the serum albumin of rats with adjuvant-induced mono- and poly-arthritis. Total antioxidant capacity, thiols, carbonyl groups, albumin, uric acid and ascorbic acid were measured in the total serum. The specific oxidative status of albumin was also measured after separation by affinity chromatography. All serum oxidative parameters were close to normal in monoarthritic rats with the exception of the ascorbic acid concentration, which was 23 % lower, and albumin carbonyl groups, which were 64 % higher. Many modifications were found in polyarthritic rats, specially the ascorbic acid concentration (35 % lower) and albumin carbonyl groups (102 % higher). The results revealed that the levels of ascorbic acid in the serum and carbonyl groups in the albumin molecule can be regarded as indicators of the severity of arthritis since they were modified by both monoarthritis and polyarthritis, but to different degrees.

This study evaluated whether fructose ingestion at adolescence programs the development ofmetabolic syndrome (MetS) in adult rats and whether moderate-intensity combined exercisecan attenuate fructose-induced MetS compounds. Pubertal rats were trained on a treadmill(55-65% VO 2max ), 3 times/week, 44 min/session, for one month. They were allocated into fourgroups: sedentary control (SC), trained control (TC), sedentary fructose (SF), and trainedfructose (TF). Groups F ingested 10% fructose. Food intake (AI) and body weight (BW) weremeasured weekly. At 60 and 120 days of age, metabolic parameters were evaluated. Fructoseintake mainly affected animals in adult life, and these changes were related to glucoseintolerance (p=0.001), periepididymal fat (p<0.03), and increase in total cholesterol (TC) (p<0.001), triglycerides (TAGs) (p<0.0001) and insulin (p<0.0001) levels. Early physicalexercise was able to decrease periepididymal (p<0.003) and retroperitoneal (p<0.0002)adipose tissue, TC levels (p<0.0001) and glucose tolerance (p=0.21). Rats that receivedcombined treatments during adolescence showed low glycemia (p=0.003) and insulinemia(p<0.0001) during the intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (ipGTT). HOMA-IR (p=0.02) andTYG (p=0.0003) scores also improved in these rats. We conclude that early ingestion of 10%fructose was effective in programming adult rats to MetS, and simultaneous moderateexercise attenuated these aggressions, causing changes in glycemic homeostasis and lipidmetabolism.