Figure 6.

Antiradical resistance of the whole blood according to season and muscle oxidative damage as a function of whole blood antioxidant defenses. (A) Half-time of the hemolysis of red blood cells (‘HT50’) from the KRL test without (‘KRL’) or with application of restriction enzymes, i.e., antiradical defense reserves (‘RESEDA-1’, ‘RESEDA-2’, ‘RESEDA-3’) of summer active (‘summer’) and winter hibernating (‘winter’) brown bears. In contrast to summer active individuals, winter hibernating bears were all torpid as indicated by their body temperature during hibernation (see Table 1). Error bars represent standard errors. Winter levels differing significantly from their respective summer level are denoted by a subscript (*p < 0.05, **p < 0.01, ***p < 0.001). Markers of (B) muscle lipid peroxidation, ‘Malondialdehyde (MDA)-protein adducts’, and (C) muscle protein oxidation, ‘Protein carbonyls’, are represented as function of HT50 of the KRL test from summer active (blue dots) and winter hibernating (red dots) brown bears. Regression statistics from linear mixed-effects models: (MDA) R² = 0.49, t = − 3.23, p = 0.02; (Prot. Carb) R² = 0.25, t = − 2.03, p = 0.09.