Salivary hormones and IgA in relation to physical performance in football

Abstract

Salivary biomarkers have shown to be useful to assess physiological stress in football, but their relationship with physical performance is unknown. The aims of this study were to investigate the effect of a football match on salivary cortisol, testosterone and immunoglobulin A (IgA) concentrations in elite footballers, and to examine the relationship of physical performance during the match to these biomarkers. Nine elite football players were assessed before, during and after a friendly international match. Physical performance during the match was measured by time-motion analysis, whilst salivary cortisol, testosterone and IgA were measured before and 10 min post-match. The results showed that players covered an average of 9463 ± 458 m during the match. Salivary cortisol did not change post-match. Testosterone and IgA concentrations decreased by 30.6% and 74.5%, respectively. The testosterone/cortisol (T/C) ratio decreased by 64.2% after the match. Changes in testosterone concentrations correlated (r = 0.85) with distance covered. Pre- and post-match testosterone levels correlated with post-match IgA concentrations (r = 0.8 and 0.89, respectively). These results suggest that a football match induces catabolic stress as indicated by the decreased T/C ratio. It seems that footballers with smaller decreases in testosterone levels covered more distance and decreased their immune function less.

Effect of a congested match schedule on immune-endocrine responses, technical performance and session-RPE in elite youth soccer players

“…A decrease in testosterone concentration has previously been reported after different types of exercise, lasting for hours to days (Peñailillo, Maya, Niño, Torres, & ZbindenFoncea, 2015;Urhausen and Kindermann, 1987). Peñailillo et al (2015) for example, compared changes in testosterone concentration from pre-to post-match (5-10 min after match), and demonstrated that salivary testosterone decreased by ~30% after a soccer match in elite soccer players. The authors also reported that players who showed smaller decreases in testosterone level had covered more distance and illustrated less pronounced alterations to their immune function.…”

Steroid hormones and psychological responses to soccer matches: Insights from a systematic review and meta-analysis

“…Alterations in the hormonal [39–43] and psychological variables over a soccer game are often observed, suggesting that combined psychological and hormonal changes during competition could be useful to monitor the stress in relation to soccer match performance. The assessment of psycho-physiological stress after a soccer match showed contradictory results throughout different studies.…”

Fatigue and Recovery in Soccer: Evidence and Challenges

“…This may have an influence on the substantial fluctuation of testosterone (T) levels over a season, but an appropriate training program should not involve T declines that reflect the accumulation of fatigue throughout the season [162 -165]. T decrement can also be detected after a match, so those players with smaller decreases in T concentration show lesser decrease in their immune function [166]. Nonetheless, conflicting results have been found in T responses after a soccer match [2,56,167], probably due to factors such as location (home versus away), opposition standard (i.e.…”

“…It has been suggested that, in preseason, players are not fatigued and can respond adequately to the training demands (T/C ratio values reflect these adaptations), whereas mid-season values are not associated with overtraining syndrome but instead are linked to the volume and intensity of previous working loads (amount of competitions), the inability to adapt and/or hormonal dysfunction [162]. Although, no difference was seen in T/C ratio from pre-match to post-match in semi-professional soccer players [56], others authors pointed out that T/C ratio can decrease by 64.2% after the match [166], and may stay low until 48 hours post-match [55]. The published results confirm that T/C ratio is highly variable [172].…”