Review articleNo effect of short-term arginine supplementation on nitric oxide production, metabolism and performance in intermittent exercise in athletes☆
Introduction
Arginine, a substrate for nitric oxide (NO) synthase, has drawn significant attention for its potential role in alleviating endothelial dysfunction and improving exercise performance through increasing NO production [1]. The vasodilation effect of arginine has been shown in both central and peripheral circulation. Oral arginine supplementation could improve coronary endothelial function in patients with nonobstructive coronary artery disease [2]. Arginine given orally or intravenously could also improve endothelium-dependent vasodilation in the forearm [3], [4], [5]. NO also plays a role in exercise-induced vasodilation in patients and healthy subjects [6], [7], [8]. The impairment of NO production and the resulting endothelial dysfunction are the major factors that limit exercise capacity in patients with various cardiopulmonary conditions. As the result, arginine supplementation has been shown to improve exercise capacity in patients with hypercholesterolemia [9], chronic heart failure [10], [11], [12], pulmonary hypertension [13] and stable angina pectoris [14], [15], [16].
Arginine supplementation could also improve exercise capacity by altering the exercise-induced accumulations of lactate and ammonia, metabolites which have been shown to be involved in the development of muscular fatigue due to the increased muscular acidity [17], [18], [19]. In addition, ammonia has also been suggested to play a role in fatigue at the central nervous system [20]. It has been shown that 3 g of arginine hydrochloride given intravenously resulted in significantly lower blood lactate and ammonia concentrations compared to a placebo after maximal graded exercise on a cycle ergometer in recreationally active subjects [21]. The reduction in exercise-induced ammonia accumulation may be associated with the increased ureagenesis as ornithine, an intermediate of the urea cycle, was significantly elevated after the supplementation. The reduction in lactate accumulation may have partly resulted from increased peripheral muscle perfusion as the increase in citrulline, a by-product of NO synthesis, was negatively correlated with the increase in lactate. Oral supplementation for 10 days [22] or prior to the exercise [23] of arginine aspartate or arginine glutamate complex could also reduce the elevation in blood lactate and ammonia after strenuous exercise.
The effect of arginine on exercise capacity in healthy subjects and well-trained athletes is less clear. It has been suggested that oral supplementation of arginine, along with glycine and α-ketoisocaproic acid prior to exercise, may increase work output in exhaustive anaerobic exercise in healthy young males [24], [25]. The supplementation of arginine and a-ketoglutarate for 8 weeks could also increase peak power in Wingate test in resistance-trained men [26]. However, the role of arginine in these studies was difficult to identify because the two other components may also contribute to the delay of fatigue. On the other hand, it has been revealed that a 14-day supplementation of arginine aspartate did not affect the performance in the subsequent marathon in endurance runners [27].
Despite the numerous studies in cardiopulmonary patients, the role of arginine supplementation on NO production, exercise capacity and exercise metabolism in athletes is still not clear. As arginine could increase exercise-induced vasodilation and remove the metabolites that may inhibit exercise performance, we hypothesized that oral supplementation of arginine may improve exercise performance in well-trained athletes. The aim of this study was to investigate whether short-term arginine supplementation could improve performance in intermittent anaerobic exercise and the underlying mechanism in well-trained male athletes. Plasma lactate and ammonia concentrations were measured to examine the metabolic effect. Furthermore, plasma concentrations of nitrate and nitrite (NOx), the major NO metabolites, and citrulline, the by-product of NO synthesis, were measured to determine the role of NO.
Section snippets
Subjects
Ten elite male college judo athletes recruited from National Taiwan College of Physical Education participated in this study. The subjects with similar body weight were selected to avoid potential difference in exercise performance and supplementation dosage. The potential subjects with known cardiovascular disease risks, with musculoskeletal injuries, or who have taken any protein supplement in the previous 3 months were excluded. The potential subjects with abnormally high or low plasma
Results
Plasma arginine concentrations in each sampling time in ARG and CON trials are shown in Fig. 2. The supplementation (P=.013) and time (P<.001) effects were significant. Plasma arginine concentrations were significantly increased from the baseline before, during and after exercise in ARG trial, while it remained unchanged throughout the sampling period in CON trial. As the result, ARG trial had significantly higher arginine concentrations than CON trial at the same time point before, during and
Discussion
The results of this study suggested that short-term arginine supplementation had no effect on NO production, lactate and ammonia metabolism and performance in intermittent anaerobic exercise in well-trained male judo athletes.
Our results showed that the performance in each set of the intermittent anaerobic exercise test were similar in ARG and CON trials. The intermittent exercise protocol used in this study was similar to the regular training and competition pattern of these well-trained judo
References (42)
- et al.
Oral L-arginine improves endothelial dysfunction in patients with essential hypertension
Int J Cardiol
(2002) - et al.
Oral L-arginine improves endothelium-dependent dilatation and reduces monocyte adhesion to endothelial cells in young men with coronary artery disease
Atherosclerosis
(1997) - et al.
Effects of oral L-arginine supplementation on exercise-induced QT dispersion and exercise tolerance in stable angina pectoris
Int J Cardiol
(2000) - et al.
Effect of supplemental oral L-arginine on exercise capacity in patients with stable angina pectoris
Am J Cardiol
(1997) - et al.
Effect of L-arginine administration on myocardial thallium-201 perfusion during exercise in patients with angina pectoris and normal coronary angiograms
J Nucl Cardiol
(2000) - et al.
Pharmacokinetics, safety, and effects on exercise performance of l-arginine alpha-ketoglutarate in trained adult men
Nutrition
(2006) - et al.
Optimization of a free separation of 30 free amino acids and peptides by capillary zone electrophoresis with indirect absorbance detection: a potential for quantification in physiological fluids
J Chromatogr B Analyt Technol Biomed Life Sci
(2002) - et al.
A colorimetric 96-well microtiter plate assay for the determination of enzymatically formed citrulline
Anal Biochem
(2000) - et al.
Determination of nitrite/nitrate in human biological material by the simple Griess reaction
Clin Chim Acta
(1998) - et al.
Correction of endothelial dysfunction in chronic heart failure: additional effects of exercise training and oral L-arginine supplementation
J Am Coll Cardiol
(2000)
Endothelial dysfunction in hypercholesterolemia is improved by L-arginine administration: possible role of oxidative stress
Atherosclerosis
The L-arginine-nitric oxide pathway
N Engl J Med
Long-term L-arginine supplementation improves small-vessel coronary endothelial function in humans
Circulation
L-arginine improves endothelium-dependent vasodilation in hypercholesterolemic humans
J Clin Invest
Nitric oxide and physiologic vasodilation in human limbs: where do we go from here?
Can J Appl Physiol
Oral L-arginine improves endothelium-dependent dilation in hypercholesterolemic young adults
J Clin Invest
Nitric oxide biomarkers increase during exercise-induced vasodilation in the forearm
Int J Sports Med
Exercise training increases basal nitric oxide production from the forearm in hypercholesterolemic patients
Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol
Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of supplemental oral L-arginine in patients with heart failure
Circulation
Effects of L-arginine on lower limb vasodilator reserve and exercise capacity in patients with chronic heart failure
Heart
Chronic L-arginine supplementation enhances endurance exercise tolerance in heart failure patients
Int J Sports Med
Cited by (73)
Nitric oxide, aging and aerobic exercise: Sedentary individuals to Master's athletes
2022, Nitric Oxide - Biology and ChemistryCitation Excerpt :The semi-essential amino acid, l-arginine, is a necessary substrate for all NOS isoforms [91]. Although healthy humans synthesize enough l-arginine to saturate NOS, some [84,92,93] but not all studies [94–97] have shown that oral ingestion of l-arginine (typically ∼3–6 mg) can augment NO production, as measured by circulatory nitrate and nitrite levels. Studies examining the effects of l-arginine on blood flow and exercise performance, at least in young adults, are equivocal; some report benefits on exercise efficiency and tolerance [84] but others report no effects on muscular endurance [98] or exercise capacity [97,99,100].
The effects of acute and chronic oral L-arginine supplementation on exercise-induced ammonia accumulation and exercise performance in healthy young men: A randomised, double-blind, cross-over, placebo-controlled trial
2022, Journal of Exercise Science and FitnessCitation Excerpt :The acute effect of arginine supplementation on exercise performance has been evaluated in previous efficacy studies using a randomised, double-blind, cross-over, placebo-controlled design6–12 (for a review of these, see Ref. 13). These studies reported that acute arginine supplementation (a few hours or 3 days prior to the study) does not alter anaerobic, aerobic or strength exercise performance,6–9,11,12 except for one study.10 In a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled design, the effect of chronic arginine supplementation (i.e., from 7 days to 45 days) on exercise performance was examined, and the findings were inconsistent.13
An Overview of Ornithine, Arginine, and Citrulline in Exercise and Sports Nutrition
2018, Nutrition and Enhanced Sports Performance: Muscle Building, Endurance, and StrengthAthletes’ nutritional demands: a narrative review of nutritional requirements
2023, Frontiers in Nutrition
- ☆
This study was financially supported by National Science Council, Taiwan (NSC-92-2413-H-028-004).