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Co-ingestion of carbohydrate with branched-chain amino acids or l-leucine does not preferentially increase serum IGF-1 and expression of myogenic-related genes in response to a single bout of resistance exercise

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if the co-ingestion of carbohydrate (CHO) with branched-chain amino acids (BCAA) or l-leucine (LEU) preferentially affected serum IGF-1 and the expression of myogenic-related genes in response to resistance exercise (RE). Forty-one college-age males were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 groups: CHO, CHO-BCAA, CHO-LEU, or placebo (PLC). Resistance exercise consisted of 4 sets of 10 repetitions of leg press and leg extension at 80 % 1RM. Supplements were ingested peri-exercise, and venous blood and muscle biopsies were obtained pre-exercise (PRE), and at 30, 120, and 360 min post-exercise. Serum IGF-1 was determined with ELISA, and skeletal muscle mRNA expression of myostatin, ACTRIIB, p21kip, p27kip, CDK2, cyclin B1, cyclin D1, Myo-D, myogenin, MRF-4, and myf5 was determined using real-time PCR. Results were analyzed by two-way ANOVA for serum IGF-1 and two-way MANOVA for mRNA expression. Serum IGF-1 in CHO + BCAA was greater than PLC (p < 0.05) but was not affected by RE (p > 0.05). A significant group × time interaction was located for cylin D1 (p < 0.05), but not for any other genes. However, significant time effects were noted for cyclin B1 and p21cip (p < 0.05). At 30, 120 and 360 min post-exercise, p21cip was significantly less than PRE. Cyclin D1 was greater than PRE and 30 min post-exercise at 120 and 360 min post-exercise, whereas cyclin B1 was significantly greater than PRE at 120 min post-exercise (p < 0.05). Unlike the co-ingestion of CHO with either BCAA or l-leucine in conjunction with RE, the expression of various myogenically related genes were up-regulated with RE.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all of the individuals who participated in the study.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

    Rui Li

  2. Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, 48202, USA

    Maria P. Ferreira

  3. College of Health and Biomedicine, Victoria University, Melbourne, VIC, 3011, Australia

    Matthew B. Cooke

  4. Exercise and Biochemical Nutrition Lab, Department of Health, Human Performance, and Recreation, Baylor University, Waco, TX, 76798, USA

    Paul La Bounty & Darryn S. Willoughby

  5. Educational and Psychological Studies, Division of Exercise Science, University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, 33620, USA

    Bill Campbell

  6. Exercise and Sport Nutrition Lab, Department of Health and Kinesiology, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, 77843, USA

    Mike Greenwood & Richard B. Kreider

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  1. Rui Li
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  2. Maria P. Ferreira
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  3. Matthew B. Cooke
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  4. Paul La Bounty
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Correspondence to Darryn S. Willoughby.

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Li, R., Ferreira, M.P., Cooke, M.B. et al. Co-ingestion of carbohydrate with branched-chain amino acids or l-leucine does not preferentially increase serum IGF-1 and expression of myogenic-related genes in response to a single bout of resistance exercise. Amino Acids 47, 1203–1213 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-015-1947-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00726-015-1947-8

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