Study on the Antioxidant and Anti-fatigue Effect of Wheat Peptides

Objective: To investigate the in vitro antioxidant activity and in vivo anti-fatigue effect of wheat peptides. Methods: The oxidative stress model was established by treating L929 cells with H₂O₂. Then the cell survival rate, the activity of lactic dehydrogenase (LDH), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxide dismutase (GSH-Px), and the content of malondialdehyde (MDA) were measured to evaluate the antioxidant activity of wheat peptides in vitro. In addition, the exhaustive swimming and freestyle swimming test was assessed. Then the exhaustive swimming time, the content of lactic acid (LA), blood urea nitrogen (BUN), muscle glycogen (MG) and MDA, the activity of SOD and GSH-Px were measured to study the anti-fatigue and antioxidant of wheat peptides in vivo. Results: The wheat peptides in the concentration range from 0.4 to 0.8 mg/mL could protect L929 cells against H₂O₂-induced oxidative damage by highly significantly increasing the survival rate（P<0.01). Compared to the model group, the activity of LDH of the wheat peptides at 0.6 and 0.8 mg/mL significantly decreased by 20.79% and 19.67%（P<0.05) , the activity of SOD was significantly （P<0.05) and highly significantly（P<0.01) increased by 83.21% and 95.19%, the activity of GSH-Px increased by 28.69% and 32.14%, and the content of MDA significantly decreased by 25.91% and 26.99%（P<0.05). Compared with the control group, the exhaustive swimming time of the wheat peptides at 2 and 8 mg/mL was significantly increased by 72.93% and 91.73%（P<0.01) , the content of LA significantly decreased by 24.65% and 25.16%（P<0.01) , the content of BUN highly significantly （P<0.01) and significantly（P<0.05) decreased by 19.74% and 17.78%, and the content of MG highly significantly increased by 48.63% and 56.85%（P<0.01) . At the same time, the activity of SOD and GSH-Px was highly significantly increased by 20.54% and 25.91%, 29.79% and 35.77%（P<0.01) , and the content of MDA was highly significantly decreased by 23.08% and 21.46%（P<0.01) . Pearson correlation analysis showed that the antifatigue effect of wheat peptides was highly correlated with its antioxidant activity. Conclusion: Wheat peptide had significant antioxidant activity and anti-fatigue effect, and the anti-fatigue effect of wheat peptide was correlated with antioxidant activity.