RESEARCH ARTICLE Oxidative stress in the kidney of reproductive female rats during aging Ana Carolina A. da Silva • Tiago B. Salomon • Camile Saul Behling • Jordana Putti • Fernanda S. Hackenhaar • Paulo V. G. Alabarse • Artur K. Schu ¨ ller • Mara S. Benfato Received: 11 March 2013 / Accepted: 17 June 2013 / Published online: 3 July 2013 Ó Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2013 Abstract Reproduction is a costly life process, and the reproductive investment by females appears to be greater than males in many species. We have analyzed the effects of reproductive investment during aging with respect to oxidative stress parameters in female Wistar rats. We measured the activity glutathione peroxidase, glutathione S-transferase, superoxide dis- mutase, consumption of hydrogen peroxide, protein carbonylation, lipid peroxidation, nitrite and nitrate levels, and Vitamin C (Vit. C) and E levels. We traced oxidative profiles at ages 3, 6, 12, and 24 months. Animals were grouped according to reproductive experience: experienced or naive with respect to reproductive activity. We measured aconitase activity and sex hormone levels. The naive animals exhibited an increase with respect to experienced in most parameters studied at 6 and 24 months, whereas experienced animals exhibited a similar increase at 3 and 12 months. At 6 months of age, during the period that would represent peak reproductive activity, naive animals showed higher levels of MDA, Vit. C, consumption of hydrogen peroxide and GPx, aconi- tase, and SOD activities. In naive elderly rats, we observed an increase in oxidative damage markers and an increase in enzymatic and non-enzymatic antiox- idants, with the exception of consumption of hydrogen peroxide and Vit. C. In the long term, the reproductive investment was not sufficient to interfere with antiox- idant capacity, and did not contribute to oxidative damage in kidneys of female Wistar rats. Keywords Reproduction Á Aging Á Antioxidant enzymes Á Oxidative stress Á Kidneys Introduction Reproduction is the most energetically demanding process of a mammal’s life, particularly for females (Garratt et al. 2011). The high metabolic effort associ- ated with reproduction increases the production of damaging reactive oxygen and nitrogen species (ROS and RNS) that escape from metabolic processes (Bergeron et al. 2011). Although these reactive species play an important role in a wide range of physiological processes including sex and reproduction (Rizzo et al. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s10522-013-9440-9) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. A. C. A. da Silva Á T. B. Salomon Á C. S. Behling Á F. S. Hackenhaar Á M. S. Benfato Programa de Po ´s-Graduac ¸a ˜o em Biologia Celular e Molecular, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil A. C. A. da Silva Á T. B. Salomon Á C. S. Behling Á J. Putti Á F. S. Hackenhaar Á P. V. G. Alabarse Á A. K. Schu ¨ller Á M. S. Benfato (&) Laborato ´rio de Estresse Oxidativo, Departamento de Biofı ´sica, IB, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Av. Bento Gonc ¸alves 9500 pre ´dio 43431, Porto Alegre, RS 91501-970, Brazil e-mail: mara.benfato@ufrgs.br 123 Biogerontology (2013) 14:411–422 DOI 10.1007/s10522-013-9440-9