Effect of passive repetitive isokinetic training on cytokines and hormonal changes.

It is well known that muscle strength and power are important factors in exercise. Plyometrics is designed to gain muscle strength and power in a shock method. The passive repetitive isokinetic (PRI) machine is developed for plyometrics. The present study aims to understand the effect of ten-week PRI training in different intensities on human plasma concentration cytokines as well as hormonal changes. Thirty young male subjects were enrolled into the ten-week PRI training program and were divided randomly into traditional, low- and high-intensity PRI training groups. Blood samples were obtained before, during, after and 1-, 2-, 3-, 5- and 7-day (D) post-training. The plasma concentrations of cytokines and hormones were measured by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Elevated plasma IL-2 was found in the subjects in all the training programs. Significant increases of proinflammatory cytokines IL-1beta and TNF-alpha were observed at post 7 D in the high-intensity PRI training (29.5 +/- 4.4 and 515.8 +/- 127.1 pg/ml, respectively). No significance in differences in the plasma concentration of IL-6 was observed in the traditional and low-intensity PRI training. Significant elevation of IL-6 was found at post 5 D in high-intensity PRI training. Higher plasma IL-6 concentration was observed at post 3 and 5 D in high-intensity PRI training compared to low-intensity PRI training (P < 0.05). Significant elevation of plasma IL-15 during (week 6) and after (post 0 D) was observed in low-intensity PRI training. Also, there were differences between low-intensity PRI training and traditional training at post 0, 2, 3, and 5 D. The plasma concentration of cortisol was decreased to the lowest value (118.0 +/- 17.3 ng/ml) at post 0 D in traditional training, then returned to the baseline (220.5 +/- 19.1 ng/ml). In the high-intensity PRI training, but not in the low-intensity PRI training, the cortisol level dropped from 224.9 +/- 25.8 ng/ml at post 0 D down to the 123.2 +/- 22.6 ng/ml at post 1 D. Significant differences were found at post 1 and 5 D between low- and high-intensity PRI training, and post 0, 1, 2, and 3 D between traditional and high-intensity PRI training. Significant increased testosterone was found post 0, 1, 2, and 3 D in traditional training. Higher plasma testosterone was observed during and the recovery period in low-intensity, but not in high-intensity, PRI training. In conclusion, high-intensity PRI training could induce the proinflammatory cytokines, i.e., IL-1beta and TNF-alpha, and decrease plasma cortisol in the recovery period.

The HSP expression of passive repetitive plyometric trained skeletal muscle.

This study aims to understand the effect of ten-week passive repetitive plyometric (PRP) training on human skeletal muscle and the application of PRP training for performance. Vastus lateralis of nine candidates were aspirated before (pre) and after (post) PRP training. Histochemical approaches with regular hematoxylene-eosin (HE) and Mallory's phosphotungstic acid hematoxylin (PTAH) stains were used to demonstrate the changes of muscle fibers. Immunohistochemical studies with heat shock protein (anti-hsp72, Stressgen, Canada) were employed to display cellular activities. Each set of slides was quantitatively analyzed by using a modified morphometric method (Russ and Dehoff, 1999) on a Nikon ECLIPSE 80i microscope, equipped with an Evolution VF COOLED color video camera, and the Image-Pro Plus software (5.0 for Win; Media Cybernetics, USA). Finally, hsp72 mRNAs of both pre-PRP and post-PRP specimens were amplified through RT-PCR. Signal intensities were read by a densitometer and analyzed through the SPSS (11.0 for Win) statistically. Post-PRP muscle cells demonstrated hypertrophic change with increased cellular content and a narrowed inter-cellular space according to both HE and PTAH profiles. Post-PRP cellular hsp72 proteins were higher by up to five percent, as measured by a gray-scale reading. Further, after a training period of 10 weeks, hsp72 mRNA expression was several times higher.