Habitual exercise at an intense level can cause suppression of mucosal immune parameters⁽ Reference Glesson and Pyne ^{1 )}. We investigated the effect of astaxanthin (Asx) supplementation on salivary IgA (sIgA) concentration and secretion rate in young soccer players following 2 hours of forced exercise. Thirty five male soccer players participated in the study. Subjects were randomly assigned in a double-blind fashion to astaxanthin (Asx) and placebo (P) group. Asx group was supplemented with 4 mg of Asx. Saliva samples were collected at the onset of the study and after 90 days of supplementation in pre-exercise and post-exercise conditions. The exercise protocol induced a significant decrease in sIgA concentration and secretion rate in young soccer players both in the pre- and post-supplementational period (p<0.05). However, we observed significant increase in pre-exercise sIgA concentration and sIgA secretion rate over the 90-days of training and supplementation program (p<0.05). In P group, we detected small, statistically insignificant decrease in sIgA response after observational period (p>0.05). These data indicate that astaxanthin supplementation might serve as a countermeasure to sIgA changes associated with continuous intense training.

Figure 1. sIgA concentration (A) and sIgA secretion rate (B) before and after 90 days of supplementation period in pre-exercise and post-exercise conditions. The difference in relation to before the training was significant at *P<0.05. The difference in relation to before the supplementation was significant at P<0.05.