Energy production pathways of female soccer players during championships: a metabolomics approach

Athletes mobilize both aerobic and anaerobic systems to produce energy during soccer matches, and it drastically modifies the concentration of metabolites related to muscle damage and energy metabolism. The fatigue-associated mechanism seems to encompass tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) disturbances, with a greater contribution of lipid-pathway metabolites in women during soccer matches. However, to the best of our knowledge, the effects of matches played during two championships on the metabolites and pathways associated with energy production in female players have not yet been described. Metabolomic analysis in sports context can better characterize the main metabolites related to energy production and the metabolic pathways. The aim of this study was to describe the variation in metabolites over the course of two championships in female players' urine, highlighting the occurrence of energy production-associated metabolites and the metabolic pathways they may arise from. Urine samples were collected before and after six matches of two championships. Nuclear magnetic resonance metabolomic approach was used for this purpose. Citrate, succinate, 1-methylnicotinamide, alpha-hydroxyisobutyrate, malonic and glycolic acids, phosphocreatine, and lactate were the compounds originated from energy generation processes with high scores in variable importance prediction (VIP), impacting on partial least squares discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) groupings of players. Phenylalanine biosynthesis, tyrosine and tryptophan biosynthesis, and the TCA cycle were mobilized before the matches, and the metabolism of taurine and hypotaurine were modulated across both moments.