EFFECTS OF THE "LIVE HIGH - TRAIN LOW" TRAINING MODEL ON HEMATIMETRIC, BIOMOLECULAR AND BIOCHEMICAL RESPONSES ASSOCIATED WITH ENERGY BALANCE

• Grant number: 24/04688-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)
• Start date: September 01, 2024
• End date: August 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Physiology - Physiology of Effort
• Principal Investigator: Claudio Alexandre Gobatto
• Grantee: Juan Bordon Orsi
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Ciências Aplicadas (FCA). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Limeira , SP, Brazil

Abstract

In 1997, Levine and Stray-Gundersen developed the "live high, train low" (LH-TL) model. In this model, athletes were able to obtain gains in physical performance if they lived at altitude (hypoxia) and trained at low altitude (normoxia). Although such a model appears to be effective in the sports context, it is still necessary to unravel physiological processes with regard to aerobic and anaerobic metabolism, as well as adaptive biochemical, biomolecular and hematological responses in tissues that are unfeasible in studies with humans, but quite possible in laboratory rodents. Our objective is to investigate, in C57BL/6J mice, the effects of aerobic training associated, or not, with housing in a hypoxic environment on spontaneous physical activity, body composition and food and water intake, as well as hematological parameters and protein contents of hypothalamic and soleus muscle tissues (oxidative) and gastrocnemius (glycolytic) proteins MCT-1, MCT-4, OXR-1, PGC-1± and HIF-1±. Thus, forty mice will be divided into two housing conditions: normoxia or hypoxia. For each type of environmental condition, the animals will be subdivided into two groups: untrained or trained. Exposure to the hypoxic environment will be 18 hours a day at an inspired oxygen fraction of 14.5% (simulating an altitude of ~3000m). The training groups will undergo an aerobic running training program carried out under normoxic conditions, with an intensity equivalent to 80% of the critical speed. Daily training sessions will have a volume of 40 minutes, repeated five days a week, for 6 weeks. At the end of the experiment, the mice will be euthanized to remove the biological materials of interest for later analysis.