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JOURNAL
OF
SPORTS SCIENCE &
MEDICINE
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Research
article
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THE EFFECTS OF CREATINE LONG-TERM SUPPLEMENTATION ON MUSCLE MORPHOLOGY AND SWIMMING PERFORMANCE IN RATS |
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Ahmet Yildiz, Ercan Ozdemir  ,
Sefa Gulturk and Sena Erdal |
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Departments of Physiology Cumhuriyet University School of Medicine, 58140 Sivas, Turkey. |
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© Journal of Sports Science and Medicine (2009) 8, 516 - 522 |
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| ABSTRACT | |||
| Creatine (Cr) has been shown to increase the total muscle mass.
The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of Cr supplementation
on muscle morphology and swimming performance, using an animal model. Each
rat was subjected to exercise 15-minute period daily for the 12 weeks. The
rats were randomly divided into four groups: no Cr supplementation (CON),
no Cr supplementation and incomplete food intake (lacking lysine and methionine
in diet for rats) (INCO), Cr supplementation 1 g·kg-1·day-1
(CREAT-I) and Cr supplementation 2 g·kg-1·day-1 (CREAT-II).
Three months later, all groups adult rats exercised in swimming pool chambers.
Swimming time was recorded as minute for each rat. Following swimming performance
period, the animals were killed by cervical dislocation and the gastrocnemius
and diaphragm muscles were dissected. Serial slices of 5-7 μm were
allocated paraffin wax and histochemical staining procedure of cross-sections
was carried out with heamatoxylin-eosin technics. All groups gained body
weight at the end of 12 weeks but there was no statistical difference among
them. Swimming time values were statistical difference between CREAT-II
and CON group as well as between CREAT-I and CON group (p < 0.05). In
the INCO group was determined increased connective tissue cell of the muscle
sample. In contrast, in the CREAT-I and CREAT-II group, the basic histological
changes were large-scale muscle fibers and hypertrophic muscle cells. These
results suggest that long-term creatine supplementation increased the number
of muscle fibers and enhanced endurance swimming performance in rats. Key words: Creatine, muscle hyprtrophy, muscle morphology, exercise, swimming performance. |
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