Glucocorticoid receptors in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells in relation to explosive performance in elite handball players

Ten handball players, members of the Italian National Team (aged 20-25 year s), were studied in two sessions corresponding to different performance lev els. The first session occurred one week after the end of the regular seaso n of the Italian Handball Federation: it corresponded to the beginning of t he training cycle for the European Handball Championship. The second sessio n occurred ten weeks after the first session. During this period, training consisted of 3 weeks of active recovery and 7 weeks of increasing workload. For each session, jumping performances (maximal height in a single jump, a verage mechanical power for a 15-s set of consecutive jumps) were evaluated . Venous blood samples were collected in resting conditions immediately bef ore jumping performances to assess cortisol and testosterone plasma concent rations and glucocorticoid receptors (GcR) binding capacity and affinity in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs). All the parameters, except GcR binding affinity, increased in the second session. The trends of variation in jumping performances, steroid hormone levels and GcR binding capacity w ere similar. For testosterone, this agrees with the hypothesis that an adeq uate level of this hormone is a prerequisite for improvement in explosive p erformances. For cortisol, higher GcR binding capacity after 10 weeks of tr aining (with respect to initial values) indicated an upregulation of GcR co ncomitant with the increase in hormone levels and performances. These findi ngs suggest that the adaptation to training, confirmed by the improvement i n performance, is characterized by a high value of GcR binding capacity and that it is mediated, among other factors, by the hormone levels and up-reg ulation of the receptors. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science inc. All rights reserve d.