The effects of different doses of oral creatine supplementation on tibial muscle resistence and fatigue in wistar rats

The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of different doses of oral creatine supplementation on tibial muscle resistance and fatigue in Wistar rats. The treatment protocols included swimming exercises, supplementation alone (different doses), and supplementation (different doses) + swimming exercises. Analysis of the effect of creatine supplementation on skeletal muscle fatigue was performed using the intensity of muscle contraction to electrical stimulation to evaluate the intensity of muscle contraction, decay time of muscle tetanic contraction to 50% of maximum tension (fatigue), and the area under the curve for the intensity x time ratio, besides AST, LDH, and urea plasmatic analysis. Our results suggest that creatine supplementation seems to be able to produce ergogenic effects on contractile metabolism in the group treated with the dose of 280 mg/kg + swim exercise. This creatine dose presented a statistically significant increase in decay time of muscle tetanic contraction (C280+swim (119±13.1), C500+swim (110±23.6) and C1000+swim (87±15.1)), area under the curve between tetanic contractions, and plasma LDH decrease, when compared to the other doses. These data clearly demonstrate that high doses do not lead to any additional ergogenic effects. We conclude that the dose of 280 mg/kg+swim exercise obtained the best ergogenic effects on tibial muscle resistance and fatigue in Wistar rats.