Research

Hormonal

NOX2-derived cytosolic ROS production is required for exercise-stimulated glucose uptake and GLUT4 translocation in skeletal muscle.

During moderate-intensity exercise, your body produces specific reactive oxygen species (ROS) via the NOX2 enzyme to signal muscles to take up glucose. This is a necessary signaling event, not just damage. While you don't need to 'increase' ROS intentionally, understanding that some oxidative stress is functional helps explain why extreme antioxidant supplementation might interfere with metabolic adaptations to exercise.

GoodSupportsHIGH confidence
These findings indicate that NOX2 is a major myocellular ROS source, regulating glucose transport capacity during moderate-intensity exercise.
Carlos Henríquez‐Olguín et al. · Nature Communications · 2019

Why this rating

High-quality mechanistic evidence using multiple loss-of-function mouse models and human biopsies, though not a direct clinical intervention trial.

Source

Cytosolic ROS production by NADPH oxidase 2 regulates muscle glucose uptake during exercise

Carlos Henríquez‐Olguín et al. · Nature Communications · 2019

DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-12523-9

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DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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