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Electrical muscle stimulation in young adults: effect of muscle volume on brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels

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Abstract

Purpose

Electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) is known to be effective at stimulating brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) levels, but the relationship between the volume of muscle stimulated and BDNF levels is not clear. The purpose of this study was to quantify BDNF as a function of muscle volume stimulated in young adults.

Methods

Twelve young adults (male, n = 9, age = 27.3 ± 5.5 years) were enrolled in this study. Participants completed three testing conditions in randomized order: 23 min of maximum tolerated bilateral stimulation of (1) the quadriceps muscle or (2) the musculature of the entire lower limbs and (3) control testing and retesting after 23 min without an intervention. Blood samples were collected before, immediately after, 20 min after, and 40 min after the intervention when EMS was applied to the thighs or the entire lower limb conditions. Serum obtained from blood collection was used for BDNF analysis.

Results

The delta value of BDNF for the test and retest in the control condition was − 42.1 ± 73.8 pg/mL, and there was no significant difference between the test and retest BDNF. Compared to stimulation of the quadriceps muscle, stimulation of the entire lower limbs produced significantly higher BDNF at 20 min post-treatment than those at pre-treatment or 40 min post-treatment, and BDNF was also significantly higher immediately post-treatment than those at pre-treatment. Only stimulation of the quadriceps muscle did not induce a significant change between pre- and post-treatment.

Conclusion

Our findings suggest that the volume of muscle stimulation is important for increased BDNF.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank all the participants involved in the study for their involvement.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Frontier Engineering, Institute of Science & Engineering, Kanazawa University, Kakuma-Machi, Kanazawa, 920-1192, Japan

    Yuichi Nishikawa & Shinobu Tanaka

  2. Graduate School of Frontier Engineering, Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, Japan

    Hiroyuki Sakaguchi

  3. MTG Co., Ltd, Nagoya, Japan

    Shuhei Kawade

  4. Division of Sports Rehabilitation, Graduate School of Biomedical and Health Sciences, Hiroshima University, Hiroshima, Japan

    Noriaki Maeda

  5. Department of Physical Therapy, Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, USA

    Allison Hyngstrom

Authors
  1. Yuichi Nishikawa
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  2. Hiroyuki Sakaguchi
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  3. Shuhei Kawade
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  4. Noriaki Maeda
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  5. Shinobu Tanaka
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  6. Allison Hyngstrom
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Contributions

Conceptualization; YN; data curation; YN and HS; formal analysis; YN; funding acquisition; YN; investigation; YN and HS; methodology; YN and SK; project administration; YN; resources; SK; software; YN; supervision; YN; validation; ST and AH; visualization; AH; writing—original draft; YN; writing—review and editing; HS, SK, NM, ST, and AH.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Yuichi Nishikawa.

Additional information

Communicated by Michael I Lindinger.

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Nishikawa, Y., Sakaguchi, H., Kawade, S. et al. Electrical muscle stimulation in young adults: effect of muscle volume on brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels. Eur J Appl Physiol 123, 361–366 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-022-05078-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-022-05078-z

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