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Cold water immersion or LED therapy after training sessions: effects on exercise-induced muscle damage and performance in rats

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Abstract

Cryotherapy and phototherapy have been suggested as recovery methods due to their anti-inflammatory effects. They may also induce mitochondrial biogenesis, thus favoring endurance training adaptation. The aim of this study was to evaluate the anti-inflammatory and ergogenic effects of phototherapy or cold water immersion (CWI) applied daily after exercise in rats. Thirty-five rats were divided into five groups: control (CO), non-exercised (CE), passive recovery (PR), cold water immersion (CWI), and LED therapy (LED). The CO and CE groups were not submitted to training; however, the CE were submitted to an exhaustion test after the training period. Low-intensity swimming training (21 sessions, 45 min) was performed followed by passive recovery (PR), CWI (10 °C, 5 min), or infrared irradiation (940 nm, 4 J/cm2). Forty-eight hours after the final training session, the CE, PR, CWI, and LED animals were submitted to an exhaustion test. The animals were euthanized 24 h later and submitted to hematological, creatine kinase (CK), and C-reactive protein (PCR) analysis. Gastrocnemius and soleus muscles were submitted to histological analysis. No differences in blood cell counts, CK, and PCR were detected between groups. The CE group presented an increased number of areas with necrosis in the gastrocnemius and soleus muscles. The PR group presented the highest frequency of areas with edema and inflammation followed by CWI and LED groups. None of the recovery methods improved the performance in the exhaustion test. Successive applications of recovery methods do not improve exercise performance, but downmodulate the inflammation and prevent muscle necrosis.

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Funding

This study was financially supported by the Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), Brazil, for the purchase of laboratory reagents and for the post-graduation grant for VBCS (grant no.1085489/2013).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center of Biological Sciences, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, Brazil

    Vanessa Batista da Costa Santos, Julio Cesar Molina Correa, Priscila Chierotti, Fábio Yuzo Nakamura & Solange de Paula Ramos

  2. Department of Preventive Veterinary Medicine, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, Brazil

    Giovana Stipp Ballarin

  3. Department of Physics, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina, Brazil

    Dari de Oliveira Toginho Filho

  4. Department of Histology, Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Rodovia Celso Garcia Cid PR 445 Km 380, Londrina, Paraná, 86051-990, Brazil

    Solange de Paula Ramos

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  1. Vanessa Batista da Costa Santos
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  2. Julio Cesar Molina Correa
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  3. Priscila Chierotti
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Correspondence to Solange de Paula Ramos.

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All experiments were previously approved by the Ethics Committee on the Use of Animals of the Universidade Estadual de Londrina (protocol 077/2013).

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da Costa Santos, V.B., Correa, J.C.M., Chierotti, P. et al. Cold water immersion or LED therapy after training sessions: effects on exercise-induced muscle damage and performance in rats. Lasers Med Sci 34, 991–999 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10103-018-2689-0

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