Abstract
Background The metabolic characteristics of body fluids of excellent water polo players before and after competition have not been reported. The purpose of the study was to compare the metabolites in the urine of water polo players before and after competition by 1H-NMR-based metabolomic approach. Methods Twenty-six young water polo players participated in the study voluntarily. The urine and blood samples of players were collected one week before competition (A), immediately after competition (B), and one week after competition (C). Metabolomic analysis was conducted on the urine samples. Urine routine items and biochemical indicators in blood samples were detected. Results Metabolomic results showed that the contents of eleven metabolites including lactic acid, acetoacetate, and succinic acid in the urine of the subjects increased and four metabolites such as dimethylamine, choline, and glucose decreased at stage B. Most metabolites at stage C had basically returned to the levels at stage A. Pyruvate metabolism, pantothenate and CoA biosynthesis, synthesis, and degradation of ketone bodies were mainly involved in the above process. Urine conventional analysis results showed that the urine pH decreased dramatically and the levels of PRO and URO significantly increased at stage B, and the three indicators had similar values between stages A and C. The other indicators did not have obvious difference among the three stages. Analysis of blood biochemical indicators showed that the levels of LDH, BUN, CK, and AST significantly increased at stage B and did not show an obvious difference between stages A and C. The results are helpful for coaches to arrange the athletes' diet reasonably and to conduct scientific training for athletes.
Highlights
Water polo is an intermittent and high-intensity team sport that requires endurance, strength, swimming speed, agility, tactical awareness, and specific technical skills, with the objective of scoring more goals than the opposite team [1]
Urine metabolomic results showed that the contents of eleven metabolites including lactic acid, acetoacetate, and succinic acid increased and four metabolites such as dimethylamine, choline, glucose, and hippurate decreased at stage B
Lactic acid at stage B increased to 0.0030 ± 0.0003 from 0.0013 ± 0.0006 at stage A, while dimethylamine decreased to 0.0037 ± 0.0007 from 0.0046 ± 0.0007
Summary
Water polo is an intermittent and high-intensity team sport that requires endurance, strength, swimming speed, agility, tactical awareness, and specific technical skills, with the objective of scoring more goals than the opposite team [1]. Metabolomics is a new research method after genomics and proteomics It is a branch of system biology which aims at information modeling and system integration based on cluster index analysis, high-throughput detection, and data processing [6]. Metabolomics provides a comprehensive and simultaneous analysis of the metabolic profile of metabolite changes occurring in living organisms in response to pathophysiological stimuli and/or genetic modification [7]. At present, it has been applied in the scientific field of sports to analyze low molecular weight metabolites of athletes in a specific period of time and systematically evaluate their rich changes [8, 9]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call