(b).

Author, year	Aim	Sample's characteristics	Experimental protocols	Samples obtained	Oxidative or inflammatory main results
Belda et al. 2008 [96]	Type of sport (aquatic or terrestrial) and cell count∗	Elite healthy athletes and with asthma	Comparison of baseline samples between healthy and asthmatic athletes who practice water sports in pools or terrestrially (T: ~20 h/wk, with the exception of healthy subjects in water with T: ~10 h/wk)	IS	There was a positive correlation between PMNs with training time and water sport in the pool
Carraro et al. 2006 [97]	eNO in regular attendance to swimming pools∗	Children swimmers attending and control children not attending the swimming pool	Comparison of baseline samples between swimmers who attended a swimming pool (1 h/week/6 months) and control subjects	EB	There were no differences in eNO between both groups
Ferdinands et al. 2008 [98]	Exercise in contaminated environment and inflammation	Cross-country athletes and healthy control subjects	Comparison of baseline samples before and after 10 workouts in 15 d (~1 h/d)	EB	<pH in cross-country athletes compared to their control subjects between their respective sample times
Heinicke et al. 2009 [47]	Pulmonary oxidative damage and prolonged stay in medium height training∗	Biathletes and sedentary control subjects	Comparison of baseline samples between biathlete (T: ~5 h/wk) and control subjects; both groups were exposed to 2800 MASL during the 6 weeks	EBC	[H2O2] and [8-isoprostane PGF2 α] with no differences between groups; by gathering data ↑ [H2O2] and tendency to ↑ [8-isoprostane PGF2 α]
Helenius et al. 1998 [99]	AWs inflammation in swimmers	Elite swimmers and nonathletic control subjects	Comparison of baseline samples between swimmers (T: 800–3380 km/year) and control subjects	IS	>Eosinophils, >PMNs, >[EPO], and >[human neutrophil lipocalin] in swimmers in comparison to control subjects
Helenius et al. 2002 [100]	Retirement from swimming in relation to AWs inflammation	High performance swimmers	Comparison of baseline samples between active (T: ~1870 km/year) and inactive swimmers (3 months of inactivity)	IS	>eosinophils and >lymphocytes in active swimmers than inactive swimmers
Karjalainen et al. 2000 [101]	Inflammatory cells in skiers, mild asthmatics, and healthy control subjects∗	Elite healthy skiers and nonathletic control subjects	Comparison of baseline samples between skiers (T: 200–630 h/year) and control subjects	Endobronchial biopsy	>lymphocytes-T (43 times), >MØ (26 times), >eosinophils (2 times), and >PMNs (2 times) in skiers in comparison to control subjects
Martin et al. 2012 [102]	AWs inflammation and exposure to swimming pool in athletes∗	Endurance athletes	Comparison of baseline samples of pool based (5 h/wk) and non-pool-based (0.5 h/wk) athletes (T: ~15 h/wk)	EB and IS	PMNs and eosinophils in IS and eNO in EB were not different between groups
Sue-Chu et al. 1999 [103]	AWs inflammation in skiers	Cross-country skiers and nonathletic control subjects	Comparison of baseline samples during the competitive period, in autumn and winter, between skiers (T: 435 h/year) and control subjects	BALF	>total cells, >lymphocytes, and >mast cells in skiers in comparison to control subjects, with no differences in [TNF-α] and [MPO]
Sue-Chu et al. 2000 [104]	Budesonide and AWs inflammation in skiers∗	Elite cross-country skiers with asthmatic symptoms and budesonide or placebo supplementation	Comparison of baseline samples among skiers, after 20 weeks of supplementation with 800 µg/d budesonide (T: ~427 h/year) or placebo (T: ~468 h/year)	BALF and endobronchial biopsy	Lymphocytes, MØ, eosinophils, PMNs, and mast cells were not different between groups

AWs: airways; BALF: bronchoalveolar lavage fluid; EB: exhaled breath; EBC: exhaled breath condensate; EPO: eosinophil peroxidase; H₂O₂: hydrogen peroxide; IS: induced sputum; 8-isoprostane PGF2α: 8-isoprostane prostaglandin F₂ alpha; MØ: macrophages; MPO: myeloperoxidase; NO: nitric oxide; PMNs: polymorphonuclear neutrophils; T: training volume; TNF-α: tumor necrosis factor-alpha. In “Aim,” ^∗the effect of exercise was not the primary aim of the study.