The effects of phosphatidic acid on performance and body composition - a scoping review

ABSTRACT

Phosphatidic acid (PA) is a lipid mediator proposed to increase muscle protein synthesis via direct stimulation of the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and may act as an anabolic supplemental aid. Evidence on the effectiveness of PA as an anabolic supplement is equivocal. We aimed to systematically assess the effect of PA on performance and body composition. Due to the small number of studies, this is a scoping review. A comprehensive search was performed in Pubmed, SPORTDiscus and Web of Science, from the 1 January 2010 to the 31 August 2020. Our search retrieved 2009 articles, which when filtered, resulted in six studies, published between 2012 and 2019, which were analysed further. Five studies were performed in adult male populations and one in an elderly male population. From these, three studies suggested no effect of PA on lean body mass , while the remaining showed a possible positive effect (body composition and performance improvements). In one of these, the supplement included other potentially anabolic substances, precluding an isolated effect of PA. After a thorough analysis of the studies included, the evidence does not support the supplementation with PA to increase performance or improve body composition in young or elderly men.

KEYWORDS:

• Sports nutrition
• performance
• supplementation
• scoping review
• body composition
• anabolic supplement

Disclosure statement

FJT and CNM are currently employees of a biotechnology company (Bettery, S.A.) that produces dietary supplements, however no funding or resources of this company were used in this investigation. SMP is listed as an inventor on patent (Canadian) 3052324 issued to Exerkine, and a patent (US) 16/182891 pending to Exerkine (but reports no financial gains). Dr. Phillips is an unpaid member of the advisory board for Enhanced Recovery (all fees donated to charity), outside the submitted work. All the authors declare there are no competing interests.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

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Funding

The authors declare no specific funding for this work.