nctId: NCT06367413 id: UTH-PRoNAC Study briefTitle: Effects of Protein and NAC Co-ingestion on Skeletal Muscle Recovery acronym: PRoNAC overallStatus: RECRUITING date: 2024-04-08 date: 2024-06-20 date: 2024-09-30 date: 2024-04-16 date: 2024-04-16 name: University of Thessaly class: OTHER briefSummary: Previous evidence suggests that though N-acetylcysteine (NAC) supplementation following eccentric exercise-induced muscle damage disrupts the skeletal muscle's repair and remodelling process at 8 days of recovery, it attenuates substantially the decline of skeletal muscle performance during the first 48 hours of recovery. The enhanced performance capacity during the first phase of recovery in response to NAC supplementation might be attributed to the altered redox status in skeletal muscle as a consequence of the NAC-mediated elevation of reduced glutathione (GSH) levels. The rise in GSH results in a redox-dependent attenuation of immune cell mobilisation and reduction of oxidative stress response, leading to a blunted rise of muscle damage and inflammatory markers during the first 2-3 days of recovery. However, following exercise-induced muscle damage, protein synthesis increases in skeletal muscle over the next 24-48 hours to support its repair process, and thus protein supplementation might accelerate the recovery process by enhancing the protein synthetic response. Therefore, the present study aims at investigating for first time the combined effect of NAC and whey protein supplementation on the short-term (during the first 72 hours) recovery process of skeletal muscle following damaging exercise (eccentric exercise) and compared it with the well-documented efficacy of NAC supplementation. The results of this study might be particularly useful for athletes, such as those in soccer and basketball, that participate in 3 games or intense training sessions during the same macrocycle with only 48-72 hours of recovery in-between. conditions: Aseptic Muscle Injury studyType: INTERVENTIONAL phases: NA allocation: RANDOMIZED interventionModel: PARALLEL interventionModelDescription: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, parallel group model. primaryPurpose: TREATMENT masking: TRIPLE maskingDescription: Participants, outcomes assessor and the principal investigator will be blinded until the intervention and the outcomes' assessment is done. whoMasked: PARTICIPANT whoMasked: INVESTIGATOR whoMasked: OUTCOMES_ASSESSOR count: 30 type: ESTIMATED name: Placebo name: NAC name: NAC + Whey Protein measure: Change in maximal voluntary isometric muscle contraction. measure: Change in countermovement jump height. measure: Change in delayed onset of muscle soreness (DOMS) measure: Change in reduced glutathione content. measure: Change in oxidized glutathione content. measure: Change in catalase activity. measure: Change in protein carbonyl concentration measure: Change in myoglobin concentration in blood. measure: Participants' lean body mass measure: Participants' daily physical activity-related energy expenditure. measure: Participants daily dietary intake. measure: Participants' resting metabolic rate. measure: Participants' cardiorespiratory fitness status. measure: Participants' fat free mass. measure: Participants' fat mass. measure: Participants' body fat percent. sex: MALE minimumAge: 18 Years maximumAge: 27 Years stdAges: ADULT facility: Department of Physical Education and Sport Science, University of Thessaly status: RECRUITING city: Tríkala state: Karies zip: 42100 country: Greece name: Dimitrios Draganidis, PhD role: CONTACT phone: +30 2431047078 email: ddraganidis@uth.gr name: Ioannis G Fatouros, PhD role: CONTACT phone: +302431047047 email: ifatouros@uth.gr lat: 39.55493 lon: 21.76837 hasResults: False