Effects of supplementation with L-glutamine and L-alanine in the body composition of rats submitted to resistance exercise

Abstract

Abstract We investigated the effects of glutamine and alanine supplementation on body composition of rats submitted to resistance exercise. Wistar rats were submitted to eight-week of resistance exercise, which consisted of climbing a ladder with progressive loads (25–100% of body weight). In the last 21 days of training, animals were supplemented with L-glutamine and L-alanine, as a dipeptide or in their free form (DIP, GLN + ALA and ALA groups), or water (SED and CTRL groups). RE attenuated body weight gain and lipid contents of CTRL group (p < 0.05 vs. SED) and DIP supplementation promoted an increase in tibialis muscle weight, as well as in protein content (p < 0.05 vs. CTRL). Taken together, our data indicated that resistance exercise improves body composition and dipeptide potentiated the muscle hypertrophic effect.

Keywords

• Glutamine
• Alanine
• Resistance exercise
• Body composition