Muscular heat shock protein response and muscle damage after semi‐professional football match

Abstract

Purpose: A typical football match leads to neuromuscular fatigue and physical performance impairments up to 72-96 h post-match. While muscle damage is thought to be a major factor, damage on the ultrastructural level has never been documented. The purpose of this study was to investigate post-match cellular muscle damage by quantifying the heat shock protein (HSP) response as a proxy for protein damage.Methods: Muscle biopsies, blood samples, countermovement jumps, and perception of muscle soreness were obtained from twelve semi-professional football players 1, 24, 48, and 72 h after a 90-min football match. Muscle biopsies were analyzed for αB-crystallin and HSP70 in the cytosolic and cytoskeletal sub-cellular fractions by Western blotting. Fiber type-specific αB-crystallin and HSP70 staining intensity, and tenascin-C immunoreactivity were analyzed with immunohistochemistry. Blood samples were analyzed for creatine kinase and myoglobin. Results:Within 24 h post-match, a 2.7-and 9.9-fold increase in creatine kinase and myoglobin were observed, countermovement jump performance decreased by −9.7% and muscle soreness increased by 0.68 units. αB-crystallin and HSP70 accumulated in cytoskeletal structures evident by a 3.6-and 1.8-fold increase in the cytoskeletal fraction and a parallel decrease in the cytosolic fraction. In type I and II fibers, αB-crystallin staining intensity increased by 15%-41% and remained elevated at 72 h post-match. Lastly, the percentage of fibers with granular staining of αB-crystallin increased 2.2-fold.Conclusions: Football match play induced a muscular HSP stress response 1-72 h post-match. Specifically, the accumulation of HSPs in cytoskeletal structures and the granular staining of αB-crystallin suggests occurrence of ultrastructural damage. The damage, indicated by the HSP response, might be one reason for the typically 72 h decrease in force-generating capacity after football matches.

Biomarkers of post-match recovery in semi-professional and professional football (soccer)

“…Alternatively, other time-course analyses have observed CK levels peaking at 48 h postgame (Ispirlidis et al, 2008;Fatouros et al, 2010;Mohr et al, 2016) or have reported different deviations to these dynamics (Gunnarsson et al, 2013;Fransson et al, 2018;Bouzid et al, 2019). Observed peak values are highly heterogeneous with some authors reporting 2-4fold increases (Rampinini et al, 2011;Gunnarsson et al, 2013;Bouzid et al, 2018;Fransson et al, 2018;Daab et al, 2021;Wiig et al, 2022) while others have documented more drastic increases in circulating CK levels compared to pre-match values (Ispirlidis et al, 2008;Fatouros et al, 2010;Mohr et al, 2016). Factors such as previous exposure to intensive exercise might lead to lower elevations in CK levels resulting from increased enzyme clearance (Hyatt and Clarkson, 1998).…”

“…Several studies have explored the impact of football match-play on blood CK levels of male players at different time points. Accordingly, CK levels have been reported to peak at 24 h postgame ( Rampinini et al, 2011 ; Silva et al, 2013 ; Bouzid et al, 2019 ; Wiig et al, 2022 ) and gradually decrease throughout the recovery period, with elevated CK levels persisting up to 48–72 h after the match or match simulation ( Ascensao et al, 2008 ; Rampinini et al, 2011 ; Silva et al, 2013 ; Daab et al, 2021 ; Wiig et al, 2022 ). Alternatively, other time-course analyses have observed CK levels peaking at 48 h postgame ( Ispirlidis et al, 2008 ; Fatouros et al, 2010 ; Mohr et al, 2016 ) or have reported different deviations to these dynamics ( Gunnarsson et al, 2013 ; Fransson et al, 2018 ; Bouzid et al, 2019 ).…”

“…CK, creatine kinase; SEM, standard error of the mean. Citations: ( Ascensao et al, 2008 ; Daab et al, 2021 ; Fatouros et al, 2010 ; Ispirlidis et al, 2008 ; Magalhães et al, 2010 ; Mohr et al, 2016 ; Wiig et al, 2022 ).…”

“…Lastly, other muscle proteins such as myoglobin leak to the systemic circulation from skeletal muscle after damage-inducing exercises. However, although myoglobin levels are typically reported to increase immediately after football matches and simulated football matches as a sign of EIMD ( Ascensao et al, 2008 ; Thorpe and Sunderland, 2012 ; Gunnarsson et al, 2013 ; Fransson et al, 2018 ; Trajković et al, 2018 ; Wiig et al, 2022 ), levels tend to normalize at 24 h post-match ( Ascensao et al, 2008 ; Gunnarsson et al, 2013 ; Fransson et al, 2018 ), thus being of limited utility for the monitoring of EIMD during post-match recovery.…”

Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage after a High-Intensity Interval Exercise Session: Systematic Review

“…Functional parameters are used by several authors as an indirect method to evaluate EIMD [29,[52][53][54][55]. There are many options commonly incorporated into EIMD studies that can be accessible to coaches and fitness instructors [22,26,29,[52][53][54][55].…”