The effect of intermittent hypobaric-hypoxia treatments on renal glutathione peroxidase activity of rats

Many people living at high altitudes experiencing a condition called intermittent hypobaric hypoxia (IHH). Some people even create IHH condition as an exercise for pilots, athletes, and mountaineers. In this experiment, we aimed to determine whether the protective effect of IHH is mediated through glutathione peroxidase (GPX) enzyme. The experiment's sample is two-month-old healthy Sprague-Dawley rat kidneys weighing 200-250 g. Intermittent hypobaric hypoxia treatment is done using a Hypobaric Chamber type I that can mimic air pressure at certain altitudes: 35,000 (one minute), 30,000 (three minutes), 25,000 (five minutes), and 18,000 (30 minutes) feet. The rats were divided into five treatment groups, including a control group, hypobaric-hypoxia group, and intermittent hypobaric-hypoxia 1x, 2x, and 3x groups with each group consisting of three rats. The specific activity of GPX was measured using RANDOX and RANSEL methods. The statistical analysis of one way-ANOVA did not show significant differences between the groups (p > 0.05), although specific activities of the renal GPX of rats exposed to hypobaric-hypoxia were higher than the control group. This may be caused by the other antioxidants' activities. In conclusion, the IHH treatment did not affect GPX activity in the rat kidneys.