Background: Adequate nutritional intake and an optimal training program are important elements of any strategy to preserve or increase muscle mass and strength during aging. Purpose: In the current study, we investigate the effects of
Dehydroepiandrosterone (
DHEA), one of the most abundant circulating
steroids in humans and a precursor
hormone, supplementation combined with a weight-loading whole-body vibration (WWBV) on exercise performance, physical
fatigue-related biochemical responses and
testosterone content in middle-aged 9 months old C57BL/6 mice. Methods: Male middle-aged C57BL/6 mice were divided into 3 groups (n = 8 per group) and treated for 4 weeks with the following: 1) Sedentary control (SC) with vehicle 2)
DHEA supplementation (
DHEA, 10.2 mg/kg) and 3)
DHEA supplementation with WWBV training (
DHEA: 10.2 mg/kg; WBV: 5.6 Hz, 2 mm, 0.13 g). Exercise performance was evaluated by forelimb grip strength and time to exhaustion, as well as changes in body composition and anti-
fatigue levels after a 15-min swimming exercise.
Fatigue-related biochemical responses of serum
lactate,
ammonia,
glucose,
creatine kinase (CK), and blood
urea nitrogen (BUN) were measured following the swimming exercise. In addition, the biochemical parameters and the
testosterone levels were measured at the end of the experiment. Results:
DHEA supplementation combined with WWBV training for 4 weeks significantly decreased the amount of white adipose tissue and increased the food and water intake. Additionally, WWBV+DHEA supplementation improved exercise performance,
testosterone levels and
glycogen contents of both liver and muscle. WWBV+DHEA supplementation also decreased serum
lactate,
ammonia and BUN levels, while increasing
glucose levels following the 15-min swim test. Conclusion: Taken together, our results suggest that combining the WWBV training program with
DHEA supplementation could provide an anti-
fatigue pharmacological effect for elderly populations.