Testosterone, cortisol,hGH, andIGF‐1 levels in anItalianfemale elite volleyball team

Abstract

PurposeTo assess the transferability of the reference intervals (RI) of testosterone (T), cortisol (C), human growth hormone (hGH), and insulin‐like growth factor (IGF)‐1, calculated on a normal healthy population, to a population of female elite volleyball players. Secondary aim of this study is the evaluation of the T/C ratio as predictive tool of overtraining during the annual regular season.MethodsA retrospective, longitudinal, observational study was performed, enrolling 58 professional female volleyball players periodically evaluated during the regular sportive season, which lasts from September to May.ResultsStatistically significant differences between the volleyball players and reference populations for T (P = .010), C (P < .001), and IGF‐1 (P < .001) were found. Three different statistical approaches to calculate the RI in the athlete group showed a high degree of concordance and pointed out a shift upwards of both lower and upper reference limits. The T/C ratio significantly changed among visits (P = .009). In particular, an overall decrease of about 30% was observed for this ratio during the season, suggesting a state of overtraining.ConclusionT, C, hGH, and IGF‐1 reference values calculated on elite volleyball female players are higher than those of the reference population used in normal clinical practice, suggesting that the health status of highly trained subjects needs the definition of tailored RI for these variables. Moreover, the utility of T/C ratio in the evaluation of overtraining is confirmed.

Circulating Inflammatory Biomarkers and Endocrine Responses to Exercise in Female Soccer Players

“…Although previous studies identified a significant stimulatory effect of exercise (Schwarz et al, 1996;Gregory et al, 2013;Hackney et al, 2016) and training of female athletes (Roli et al, 2018) on serum IGF-1 levels, our data showed no significant differences in either IGF-1 and IGFBP-3 in response to graded exercise. In the present study, post-exercise cortisol levels seem to stimulate higher IGF-1 levels, whereas higher T/C levels correspond to lower hGH and IGF-1 secretion.…”

“…It should be stated that the intense treadmill exercise to volitional exhaustion elicited a time-dependent increase of IL-6 during recovery, but did not alter serum IL-1β and TNF-α concentration. Previous studies support the findings that exercise which induces gene expression of inflammatory markers (acute phase cytokines) and their signaling pathways may constitute a sensitive tool to characterize the early effects of exercise on immune regulation (Pedersen and Hoffman-Goetz, 2000;Radom-Aizik et al, 2009) and adaptive processes during exercise (Ostrowski et al, 1999;Gillum et al, 2011;Roli et al, 2018). Physical stress causes the deregulation of muscle homeostasis and fiber integrity.…”

“…Additionally, during exercise, cytokine secretion is related to endocrine and paracrine factors (Pedersen and Febbraio, 2008;Meckel et al, 2011). Given the relationship between hormones and immunity, little research has investigated the role of female sex steroids on the immune function (Schuurs and Verheul, 1990;Giraldo et al, 2011;Roli et al, 2018). A greater anti-inflammatory status has been reported in response to contraceptive use and was parallel with lower estrogens concentrations.…”

“…The increasing popularity of female soccer developed an interest regarding their physiology and adaptive responses to exercise. Especially to exercise-induced secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines and steroid hormones during different training loads and competition ( Roli et al, 2018 ; Edwards et al, 2013 ; Walsh et al, 2011 ). There is extensive literature regarding the variation of different biological variables, resulting from physical and mental stress of professional athletes ( Ostrowski et al, 1999 ; Rowel et al, 2018; Oliveira et al, 2009).…”

Familial Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy: Clinical Determinants of Phenotype Discordance and the Impact of Endurance Sports

“…There is recent evidence that sex hormones may have an impact on susceptibility to occurrence of various arrhythmias. It has been shown that elite female athletes have significantly higher values of testosterone, when compared to controls [ 22 ]. Our group has recently shown that circulating sex hormone levels, particularly high levels of testosterone and low levels of estrogen, may lead to adverse arrhythmic outcomes in ARVC.…”