Abstract
Red ginseng has been reported to elicit various therapeutic effects relevant to cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases, and inflammatory diseases. However, the effect of red ginseng on exercise endurance and skeletal muscle function remains unclear. Herein, we sought to investigate whether red ginseng could affect exercise endurance and examined its molecular mechanism. Mice were fed with red ginseng extract (RG) and undertook swimming exercises to determine the time to exhaustion. Animals fed with RG had significantly longer swimming endurance. RG treatment was also observed to enhance ATP production levels in myoblasts. RG increased mRNA expressions of mitochondrial biogenesis regulators, NRF-1, TFAM, and PGC-1α, which was accompanied by an elevation in mitochondrial DNA, suggesting an enhancement in mitochondrial energy-generating capacity. Importantly, RG treatment induced phosphorylation of p38 and AMPK and upregulated PGC1α expression in both myoblasts and in vivo muscle tissue. In addition, RG treatment also stimulated C2C12 myogenic differentiation. Our findings show that red ginseng improves exercise endurance, suggesting that it may have applications in supporting skeletal muscle function and exercise performance.
Highlights
The maintenance of skeletal muscle function is an important factor in controlling the quality of life
proliferator-activated receptor gamma co-activator 1α (PGC-1α) is responsible for the changes seen after endurance training, such as mitochondrial biogenesis, oxidative muscle fiber formation, and angiogenesis, which contribute to an overall increase in exercise capacity [11,12]
red ginseng extract (RG) Upregulates p38, AMPK, and PGC-1α function and mitochondrial biogenesis, we examined the effect of RG on p38, AMPK, and PGC1α
Summary
The maintenance of skeletal muscle function is an important factor in controlling the quality of life. Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma co-activator 1α (PGC-1α) is a master transcription coactivator that regulates mitochondrial energy metabolism and muscle function, and its expression is reduced with aging and increased by exercise training [8,9,10]. PGC-1α is responsible for the changes seen after endurance training, such as mitochondrial biogenesis, oxidative muscle fiber formation, and angiogenesis, which contribute to an overall increase in exercise capacity [11,12]. The various health-promoting effects of RG have been reported to include alleviation of fatigue, protection from muscle damage after strenuous exercise, and improvements in energy metabolism [21,22,23,24]. Red ginseng has been reported to show an increase in multiple types of ginsenosides compared to white ginseng, including Rg3, Rk1, Rf, and Rg5 [25,26]. We sought to investigate the effect of red ginseng on muscle function and tested its impact on exercise capacity in vivo
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