Acute supplementation with keto analogues and amino acids in rats during resistance exercise

Abstract

During exercise, ammonia levels are related to the appearance of both central and peripheral fatigue. Therefore, controlling the increase in ammonia levels is an important strategy in ameliorating the metabolic response to exercise and in improving athletic performance. Free amino acids can be used as substrates for ATP synthesis that produces ammonia as a side product. Keto analogues act in an opposite way, being used to synthesise amino acids whilst decreasing free ammonia in the blood. Adult male rats were divided into four groups based on receiving either keto analogues associated with amino acids (KAAA) or a placebo and resistance exercise or no exercise. There was an approximately 40 % increase in ammonaemia due to KAAA supplementation in resting animals. Exercise increased ammonia levels twofold with respect to the control, with a smaller increase (about 20 %) in ammonia levels due to exercise. Exercise itself causes a significant increase in blood urea levels (17 %). However, KAAA reduced blood urea levels to 75 % of the pre-exercise values. Blood urate levels increased 28 % in the KAAA group, independent of exercise. Supplementation increased glucose levels by 10 % compared with control animals. Exercise did not change glucose levels in either the control or supplemented groups. Exercise promoted a 57 % increase in lactate levels in the control group. Supplementation promoted a twofold exercise-induced increase in blood lactate levels. The present results suggest that an acute supplementation of KAAA can decrease hyperammonaemia induced by exercise.

Improved training tolerance by supplementation with α-Keto acids in untrained young adults: a randomized, double blind, placebo-controlled trial

“…However, two relevant studies have been reported [8,22]. In a study of adult rats, De Almeida et al have shown that exercise increased ammonia levels twofold with respect to the control and significantly increased blood urea levels (17%).…”

“…BCAA supplementation was reported to increase endurance capacity in trained individuals [18,19], but this result was not supported by other studies [20,21]. In addition, the combination of the keto analog and amino acid supplementation was reported to attenuate the increase in blood ammonia concentration after an exercise bout [8,22]. However, studies of the effects of α-keto acid supplementation (KAS) seem to be principally limited to pathological conditions such as renal or hepatic disorders, and the effects of KAS alone on physical exercise in healthy subjects remain unknown.…”

“…Under high-intensity exercise, amino acids produced from muscle protein breakdown are partly used to produce energy [7]. It has been shown that the blood level of ammonia increased significantly in rats during resistance exercise and in humans during intense dynamic exercise [8,9]. Several studies have reported that an exercise bout causes a dramatic increase in ammonia concentration along with an increase in inosine-5´-monophosphate (IMP) and the ratio of IMP/AMP (adenosine monophosphate), demonstrating a deamination process from AMP to IMP under high energy turnover [10], which can remain above the baseline level after one hour of recovery [9].…”

Investigating the Cellular and Metabolic Responses of World-Class Canoeists Training: A Sportomics Approach

“…Some of these changes in metabolism can be assessed using blood as a biological matrix. For more than one decade, our group has dedicated research efforts towards understanding changes in metabolism using exercise as an induced-stress metabolic model [3,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]. The Sportomics approach targets metabolic and signaling molecule evaluations during either mimicked or real conditions faced in sports situations; it combines “-omics” technique with classic clinical laboratory analyses in order to understand sport-induced modifications [16].…”

“…Therefore, ammonia accumulation may be avoided through a detoxification system. Humans convert ammonia to urea mainly in hepatocytes, and different cells can decrease ammonemia by synthesizing amino acids as a mechanism for further excretion of urea [9,11,37]. Therefore, an increase in urea levels reflects both AMP and amino acid deamination.…”