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Leucine‑enriched essential amino acids promote muscle protein synthesis and ameliorate exercise-induced exhaustion in prolonged endurance exercise in rats

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Abstract

Background

Long-term endurance exercise results in muscle damage as well as muscle protein synthesis (MPS). Recovery from endurance exercise leads to enhancement of physical performance and amelioration of a series of exhaustion-related syndromes. The use of essential amino acids has become a common practice to provide stimulation of MPS and post-exercise recovery. The aim of this study was to investigate MPS and exhaustion amelioration effects of leucine-enriched essential amino acids (LEAA) in specific ratio.

Methods

Our proposal was verified by long-term loaded-swimming exercise model in rats. Male Wistar rats were administered LEAA or whey protein solution 30 min after loaded-swimming exercise for 7 weeks. After experimental period, all rats performed the loaded-swimming test until exhaustion.

Results

Our results showed that the muscle content of the LEAA group significantly increased muscle content (0.016 ± 0.0013) compared with the Rested control (0.013 ± 0.0004) and Exercise groups (0.015 ± 0.0012), respectively. The plasma levels of BCAA (leucine, isoleucine, and valine; pmol/L) (415.3 ± 25.88, 254.7 ± 12.96, 367.1 ± 33.46) were significantly higher in LEAA group compared with the whey protein interventions with exercise (312.2 ± 21.67, 199.8 ± 8.37, 281.4 ± 12.66). LEAA ingestion significantly activated mTOR/p70S6K1 signaling pathway to stimulate MPS. Furthermore, the ingestion of LEAA enhanced the time to exhaustion (108.6 ± 5.75), increased the GSH content, and decreased the levels of blood lactic acid (BLA) and blood urea nitrogen (BUN) in recovery phase.

Conclusions

These results collectively suggest that LEAA ingestion with long-term endurance exercise can improve MPS and ameliorate exhaustion in rats after long-term exercise. And those effects were better than WP ingestion. Our study may provide valuable information for further studies.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets generated and/or analyzed during the current study are not publicly available but are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Abbreviations

MPS:

Muscle protein synthesis

LEAA:

Leucine-enriched essential amino acids

BCAA:

Leucine, isoleucine, and valine

mTOR:

Mammalian target of rapamycin

p70S6K1:

Ribosomal protein S6 kinase

GSH:

Glutathione

BLA:

Blood lactic acid

BUN:

Blood urea nitrogen

WP:

Whey protein

4EBP:

4E-binding protein 1

Akt:

Protein kinase B

FOXO1:

Forkhead box O1

ROS:

Reactive oxygen species

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to INNOBIO® Co., Inc. for providing the supplements used in this study.

Funding

This work was supported by grants from the Liaoning Revitalization Talents Program (XLYC1803019).

Author information

Author notes

  1. Jin Wen and Chao Fan contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. INNOBIO Co., Ltd., No. 49, Development Area, Dalian, 116600, China

    Jin Wen, Chao Fan, Ming Liu, Qian Li, Chao Shi, Xiaojuan Wu & Wenzhong Wu

  2. School of Biological Engineering, Dalian Polytechnic University, Dalian, 116034, People’s Republic of China

    Chao Fan

  3. Department of Clinical Pharmacology, College of Pharmacy, Dalian Medical University, 9 West Section, Lvshun South Road, Lvshunkou District, Dalian, 116044, China

    Changyuan Wang & Kexin Liu

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  1. Jin Wen
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Contributions

WW, JW, and CF conceived the study. JW, CF, CS, CW, KL, and WW designed experiments. WW, CF, CW, and KL performed all animal experiments and data analysis. ML, QL, CS, and XW prepared the supplements in this research. JW and CF wrote the manuscript. WW and KL supervised the work and revised the manuscript. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kexin Liu or Wenzhong Wu.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

This research was conducted according to animal guidelines from Dalian Medical University which were in agreement with ethical committee of Dalian Medical University, (Permit No. SCXK (Liao) 2015–2003). All the experimental protocol was strictly conducted in conformity with the National Institutes of Health Guide for Care and Use of Laboratory Animals (Publication no. 85–23, revised 1985), and Dalian Medical University Animal Care and Ethics Committee.

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Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests.

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Wen, J., Fan, C., Liu, M. et al. Leucine‑enriched essential amino acids promote muscle protein synthesis and ameliorate exercise-induced exhaustion in prolonged endurance exercise in rats. Nutrire 47, 7 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s41110-022-00158-8

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