Marine Phytoplankton Improves Exercise Recovery in Humans and Activates Repair Mechanisms in Rats

Abstract

This study investigated the effects of marine phytoplankton supplementation on 1) perceived recovery and ground reaction forces in humans following a non-functional overreaching resistance-training program and 2) myogenic molecular markers associated with muscle cell recovery in a rat model. In the human trial, a 5-week resistance-training program with intentional overreaching on weeks 2 and 5 was implemented. Results indicate that marine phytoplankton prompted positive changes in perceived recovery at post-testing and, while both marine phytoplankton and placebo conditions demonstrated decreased peak and mean rate of force development following the overreaching weeks, placebo remained decreased at post-testing while marine phytoplankton returned to baseline levels. In the rat model, rats were divided into four conditions: (i) control, (ii) exercise, (iii) exercise + marine phytoplankton 2.55 mg·d^-1, or (iv) exercise+marine phytoplankton 5.1 mg·d^-1. Rats in exercising conditions performed treadmill exercise 5 d·wk^-1 for 6 weeks. Marine phytoplankton in exercising rats increased positive and decrease negative myogenic factors regulating satellite cell proliferation. Taken together, marine phytoplankton improved perceptual and functional indices of exercise recovery in an overreaching human model and, mechanistically, this could be driven through cell cycle regulation and a potential to improve protein turnover.

Fig. 1

PRS Change Relative to Wk1. Changes in Perceived Recovery Status scale relative to Wk1 (Time ₂ – Wk1). Red line indicates mean value. *= Significantly greater than Week 2 (p<0.05). ^=Significantly different between groups (p<0.05).

Fig. 2

Explosive Strength Measured as Mean RFD (kN·s ^-1 ). Percentage of Pre-Test value at subsequent timepoints determined as (100 * (Time ₂ /Pre)). *,**=significantly lower than Pre (p<0.05, p<0.01). ^=significantly different between groups (p<0.05).

Fig. 3

Effects of Marine Phytoplankton on muscle MAFbx a , MuRF-1 b , MyoD c , Myostatin d , and NCAM e levels in treadmill running rats. The densitometric analysis of the relative intensity according to the control group of the western blot bands was performed with β-actin normalization to ensure equal protein loading. The error bars above the lines point out the standard deviation of the mean. Different symbols (a-d) indicate statistical differences among the groups (ANOVA and Turkey's post-hoc test ; p<0.05). MAFbx=Muscle atrophy F-box; MuRF-1=Muscle RING-finger protein-1; MyoD=Myogenic differentiation factor; NCAM=Neural cell adhesion molecules.

Fig. 4

Serum Creatine Kinase Concentration. Serum creatine kinase (CK) concentration across all four arms. Data are expressed as mean and standard error of the mean. Different symbols ( a - d ) indicate statistical differences among the groups (ANOVA and Turkey's post-hoc test ; p<0.05).