Caffeine Boosts Weight-Lifting Performance in Rats: A Pilot Study

Emanuel Pereira-Alves; Julia Machado-Pereira; Anibal Monteiro; Roberto Costa-Cordeiro; Vinod Chandran; Igor Jurisica; Eduardo Prado; L C Cameron

doi:10.3390/nu16132022

Caffeine Boosts Weight-Lifting Performance in Rats: A Pilot Study

Nutrients. 2024 Jun 26;16(13):2022. doi: 10.3390/nu16132022.

Authors

Emanuel Pereira-Alves¹, Julia Machado-Pereira¹, Anibal Monteiro^{2

3}, Roberto Costa-Cordeiro¹, Vinod Chandran^{4

5}, Igor Jurisica^{6

7

8}, Eduardo Prado^{1

9}, L C Cameron^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Lorraine Protein Biochemistry Group, Graduate Program in Neurology, Gaffrée e Guinle University Hospital, Rio de Janeiro 20270-004, RJ, Brazil.
² Laboratory of Protein Biochemistry, The Federal University of the State of Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro 20290-250, RJ, Brazil.
³ Institute of Biological and Health Sciences, Federal University of Mato Grosso, Barra do Garças 78605-091, MG, Brazil.
⁴ Arthritis Program, Schroeder Arthritis Institute, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5T 0S8, Canada.
⁵ Division of Rheumatology, Department of Medicine, Institute of Medical Science, Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5T 0S8, Canada.
⁶ Osteoarthritis Research Program, Division of Orthopedic Surgery, Schroeder Arthritis Institute and Data Science Discovery Centre for Chronic Diseases, Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON M5T 0S8, Canada.
⁷ Departments of Medical Biophysics and Computer Science and Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5G IL7, Canada.
⁸ Institute of Neuroimmunology, Slovak Academy of Sciences, 845 10 Bratislava, Slovakia.
⁹ Laboratory for Research in Physical Exercise and Metabolism, Federal University of Alagoas, Maceió 57072-900, AL, Brazil.

Abstract

Caffeine is a well-described ergogenic aid used to enhance athletic performance. Using animal models can greatly increase our understanding of caffeine's mechanisms in performance. Here, we adapted an animal weight-lifting exercise model to demonstrate caffeine's ergogenic effect in rats. Male Wistar rats (315 ± 35 g) were randomly divided into two groups: one group received 5 mg·kg^-1 of caffeine (0.5 mL; CEx; n = 5) and the other 0.9% NaCl (0.5 mL; PEx; n = 4) through an orogastric probe (gavage) one hour before exercise. Weight-lifting exercise sessions were performed over three subsequent days, and the number of complete squats performed was counted. Analyses of the area under the curve in all three experiments showed that the CEx group responded more to stimuli, performing more squats (1.7-, 2.0-, and 1.6-fold; p < 0.05) than the control group did. These three days' data were analyzed to better understand the cumulative effect of this exercise, and a hyperbolic curve was fitted to these data. Data fitting from the caffeine-supplemented group, CEx, also showed larger S_max and K_d (2.3-fold and 1.6-fold, respectively) than the PEx group did. Our study demonstrated an acute ergogenic effect of caffeine in an animal weight-lifting exercise model for the first time, suggesting potential avenues for future research.

Keywords: animal; caffeine; exercise; weight lifting.

MeSH terms

Animals
Caffeine* / administration & dosage
Caffeine* / pharmacology
Male
Performance-Enhancing Substances / administration & dosage
Performance-Enhancing Substances / pharmacology
Physical Conditioning, Animal / physiology
Pilot Projects
Rats
Rats, Wistar*
Weight Lifting* / physiology

Substances

Caffeine
Performance-Enhancing Substances

Grants and funding

This study was funded by the Brazil Olympic Committee (BOC); Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq); Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES); Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP); Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (FAPERJ); INCT-TeraNano (CNPq #403193/2022-2, -FAPEMIG CBB # APQ-03613-17). Merck-Sigma-Aldrich; SISCAPA; Universidade Federal do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UNIRIO); and the Waters Corporation. Also, it was supported in part by funding from the Natural Sciences Research Council (NSERC #203475), the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI #225404, #30865), the Ontario Research Fund (RDI #34876, RE010-020), IBM, and the Ian Lawson van Toch Fund. V.C. is supported by a Clinician Scientist Salary Support Award from the Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. The funders had no role in this study’s design, data collection, analysis, publication decisions, or manuscript preparation.