Qom University of Medical Sciences Journal

Background and Objectives: The aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of glucose and glutamine supplementation on two serum growth factors, GH and IGF-I, in non-athlete males during four weeks of exhaustive endurance - intermittent training that causes glycogen depletion.

Methods: 20 non-athlete healthy males were selected and randomly assigned into four groups including: glucose supplementation with glycogen depletion training group (n=5, supplement 1), glutamine supplementation with glycogen depletion training group (n=5, supplement 2), glycogen depletion training group (n=5, placebo), and a group without any treatment (n=5, control). The blood samples were collected at the onset of the training protocol, and 48 hours after final training session from anticubital venous. Serum GH and IGF-I concentration were determined by ELISA technique. The main and interaction effects of variables were determined using TWO WAY ANOVA compeleted with Tukey post-hoc test. The significant level was chosen as α=0.05.

Results: The results showed the significant effect of training variable for serum IGF-I concentration, (p<0.01). Post-hoc test showed the significant difference between supplement 1 with control groups (p<0.01), and placebo with control (p<0.01). The effect of training variable was not significant for serum GH concentration. In addation, the effect of supplementation variable was not significant neither for serum IGF-I, nor serum GH concentration. Also, the interaction effect between the two variables was not significant.

Conclusion: The results suggested that glucose or glutamine supplementation does not have significant effects on serum GH and IGF-I concentration after four weeks, but four weeks glycogen depletion training causes an increase on the serum IGF-I.