Aerobically demanding activities like aggression can lead to an elevated oxidative metabolism affecting the concentration of pro-oxidant and antioxidant compounds and can result in an overall perturbation of the oxidative status. Aggression may also alter the oxidative status indirectly through an increase in testosterone and progesterone concentrations. Given that changes in the oxidative status could represent a physiological cost of aggression, we tested the hypothesis that acute conspecific aggression impairs the oxidative status and evaluated the role of testosterone and progesterone as potential mediators. To achieve this, we experimentally manipulated the aggressive behavior of wild female and male birds and measured the concentrations of pro-oxidants, enzymatic- and non-enzymatic antioxidants, testosterone and progesterone in blood. After 20 min of conspecific aggressive behavior, both sexes had lower concentrations of non-enzymatic antioxidants than control individuals. This effect was independent of testosterone and progesterone concentrations, and much stronger in females than in males. Further, only in females (but not in males) being more aggressive came at the expense of lower antioxidant concentration. We provide the first experimental evidence that acute aggressive behavior perturbates the oxidative state of a wild vertebrate independently of testosterone and progesterone, with potential ecological and evolutionary implications given the role of the redox system in shaping life-history traits.

有氧要求的活动，如攻击性，会导致氧化代谢升高，影响促氧化剂和抗氧化化合物的浓度，并可能导致氧化状态的整体扰动。攻击也可能通过增加睾酮和孕酮浓度间接改变氧化状态。鉴于氧化状态的变化可能代表攻击的生理成本，我们测试了急性同种攻击损害氧化状态的假设，并评估了睾酮和孕酮作为潜在介质的作用。为了实现这一目标，我们通过实验操纵了野生雌性和雄性鸟类的攻击行为，并测量了血液中促氧化剂、酶促和非酶促抗氧化剂、睾酮和孕酮的浓度。在 20 分钟的同种攻击行为后，两性的非酶抗氧化剂浓度均低于对照个体。这种效应与睾酮和孕酮浓度无关，女性比男性强得多。此外，只有雌性（而不是雄性）更具攻击性，以降低抗氧化剂浓度为代价。我们提供了第一个实验证据，表明急性攻击行为会干扰野生脊椎动物的氧化状态，而不受睾酮和孕酮的影响，鉴于氧化还原系统在塑造生活史特征中的作用，具有潜在的生态和进化意义。这种效应与睾酮和孕酮浓度无关，女性比男性强得多。此外，只有雌性（而不是雄性）更具攻击性，以降低抗氧化剂浓度为代价。我们提供了第一个实验证据，表明急性攻击行为会干扰野生脊椎动物的氧化状态，而不受睾酮和孕酮的影响，鉴于氧化还原系统在塑造生活史特征中的作用，具有潜在的生态和进化意义。这种效应与睾酮和孕酮浓度无关，女性比男性强得多。此外，只有雌性（而不是雄性）更具攻击性，以降低抗氧化剂浓度为代价。我们提供了第一个实验证据，表明急性攻击行为会扰乱野生脊椎动物的氧化状态，而不受睾酮和孕酮的影响，鉴于氧化还原系统在塑造生活史特征中的作用，具有潜在的生态和进化意义。