Whole-body cryostimulation impact on blood serum thermal denaturation profiles of cross-country skiers

Abstract

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.