Microcirculatory-tissue and biochemical indices of blood circulation in athletes in response to exercise

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PhD, Associate Professor F.A. Mavliev1
PhD, Associate Professor A.S. Nazarenko1
PhD, Associate Professor N.Kh. Davletova1
Dr. Biol., Associate Professor A.A. Nabatov1
1Volga Region State Academy of Physical Culture, Sports and Tourism, Kazan

Keywords: thermoregulation, microcirculation, vessels, blood flow, VEGF-1, training load, athletes.

Aim: To study long- and short-term factors of blood microcirculation in adaptation to training load.
Participants and Methods. Participants of the study included: field athletes, swimmers, cross country skiers, hockey players, and non-athletes.
To study the short-term adaptation in hockey players, participant performed several series of high intensity training sessions with short breaks using bicycle ergometer (Monark, Sweden). Blood samples were taken before and after the training load. For long term adaptation experiments with field athletes, swimmers, and cross country skiers we recorded data without a training load.
To measure microcirculation levels we used laser diagnostic system «LAZMA ST» (Russia). The detector was placed on the big toe. The test included three steps: 1) 8 minutes record with original temperature in the studied area; 2) one minute record of area cooled on 10°С below the original temperature; 3) four minutes record in the area warmed up to 35°С.
VEGF-1concentration  in serum samples was measured using diagnostic kits based on ELISA method according to the manufacturer instructions (VectorBest, Russia) .
Results and Discussion. We found sport-type specific differences in blood perfusion in the studied skin area. Oxidative metabolism and its reserve index was different for swimmers and skiers (27,34 units vs. 17,64 units, respectively, p<0,05) during the third step of measurement. This result suggests that the skiers have higher reserve of oxidative metabolism, which needs its correct explanation in future. All other data including VEGF level did not correlate with types of sports or professional sport level of athletes.
The short-term adaptation results obtained with hockey players demonstrated correlation between microcirculation and the training load highest power (r=0,87, р<0,05), and between microcirculation and the rate of power decrease from the beginning to the end of the test (r=-0,91, р<0,05).
Conclusion.  Long term adaptation of microcirculation is mostly detectable in cross country skiers (significantly decreased), which can be related to the low temperature environment of their training and during competition season in particular. In short term adaptation the vasodilation factors mediate general effects on many systems, including skin, which can be related to thermoregulation processes. This suggests that the level of vasodilation correlates with the training load level.

Reference list

  1. Mavliev F.A. Features and factors mediating microcirculation in endurance athletes. Science and Sport: modern tendencies. – 2019. – V. 7, № 3. – P. 100-107 (in Russian).

This work was performed in the frames of state assignment from Russian Federation Ministry of Sport (Order № 1078 from 14.12.2017).

Corresponding author e-mail: fanis16rus@mail.ru