Ergothioneine Improves Aerobic Performance Without Any Negative Effect on Early Muscle Recovery Signaling in Response to Acute Exercise.

Théo Fovet,Guillaume Py,Angèle Chopard,Pierre Delobel,Corentin Guilhot,Thomas Brioche

doi:10.3389/fphys.2022.834597

Abstract

Physical activity is now recognized as an essential element of healthy lifestyles. However, intensive and repeated exercise practice produces a high level of stress that must be managed, particularly oxidative damage and inflammation. Many studies investigated the effect of antioxidants, but reported only few positive effects, or even muscle recovery impairment. Secondary antioxidants are frequently highlighted as a way to optimize these interactions. Ergothioneine is a potential nutritional supplement and a secondary antioxidant that activates the cellular NRF2 pathway, leading to antioxidant response gene activation. Here, we hypothesized that ergothioneine could improve performance during aerobic exercise up to exhaustion and reduce exercise-related stress without impairing early muscle recovery signaling. To test this hypothesis, 5-month-old C56B6J female mice were divided in two groups matched for maximal aerobic speed (MAS): control group (Ctrl; n = 9) and group supplemented with 70 mg ergothioneine/kg/day (ET; n = 9). After 1 week of supplementation (or not), mice performed a maximum time-to-exhaustion test by running on a treadmill at 70% of their MAS, and gastrocnemius and soleus muscles were collected 2 h after exercise. Time to exhaustion was longer in the ET than Ctrl group (+41.22%, p < 0.01). Two hours after exercise, the ET group showed higher activation of protein synthesis and satellite cells, despite their longer effort. Conversely, expression in muscles of metabolic stress and inflammation markers was decreased, as well as oxidative damage markers in the ET group. Moreover, ergothioneine did not seem to impair mitochondrial recovery. These results suggest an important effect of ergothioneine on time-to-exhaustion performance and improved muscle recovery after exercise.

Highlights

Physical activity is recognized as an essential element of healthy lifestyles
After 1 week of supplementation, time to exhaustion was 41.22% longer in the ET than control group (Ctrl) group, supporting our hypothesis that ergothioneine might increase performance in exhaustive aerobic exercise
Exercise-induced oxidative damage (4HNE, oxidized proteins and p53 phosphorylation on Ser15) in muscle was similar in ET and Ctrl mice, despite the longer intense effort performed by ET animals that should have led to higher reactive oxygen and nitric species (RONS) production (Fisher-Wellman and Bloomer, 2009)

Summary

Introduction

Physical activity is recognized as an essential element of healthy lifestyles. the frequent practice of intensive physical activity produces high stress levels, oxidative stress and inflammation, that must be managed (Wang et al, 2006; Sureda et al, 2009; Kawamura and Muraoka, 2018). Many athletes in aerobic-dominant sports empirically use antioxidant supplementation to counteract the overproduction of reactive oxygen and nitric species (RONS) and the inflammation occurring during exercise (Macera et al, 2003; Bassel-Duby and Olson, 2006; Warburton et al, 2006; Schnohr et al, 2015; Ranchordas et al, 2017). These supplementation strategies may have several objectives, such as performance gain, or improving muscle adaptation/recovery after a training session and/or competition (Knapik et al, 2016). This is explained by the many effects of oxidizing molecules, leading to protein, lipid and DNA damage, and by their implication in different pathways, for instance, muscle protein synthesis, protein degradation, excitation-contraction coupling (calcium movements) and apoptosis (Powers et al, 2011, 2016)

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