{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,2]],"date-time":"2026-10-02T04:17:38Z","timestamp":1790914658661,"version":"4.1.0"},"reference-count":32,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"15","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]],"date-time":"2026-08-01T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1785542400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"National Science Centre, Poland (NCN), PRELUDIUM programme","award":["2021\/41\/N\/NZ4\/02364"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021\/41\/N\/NZ4\/02364"]}]},{"award":["2021\/41\/N\/NZ4\/02364"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["2021\/41\/N\/NZ4\/02364"]}],"id":[{"id":"https:\/\/ror.org\/03ha2q922","id-type":"ROR","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Nutrients"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Background: Gut microbiota may influence metabolic and inflammatory responses to exercise through the gut\u2013muscle axis, and probiotic supplementation has been proposed to support adaptation and recovery in endurance athletes. However, evidence in trained populations is inconsistent and is confounded by variability in diet, probiotic strains, dose, and intervention duration. We tested whether a multistrain probiotic, administered against a fully standardized diet, would affect exercise performance and inflammatory, metabolic, and muscle-damage responses. Methods: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, 30 trained male long-distance runners were randomized and 27 completed the study (probiotic [PRO], n = 13; placebo [PLA], n = 14). All participants followed a standardized, normocaloric meal-box diet for four weeks. Aerobic capacity (peak oxygen uptake, VO2peak; primary outcome) was assessed by an incremental treadmill test and anaerobic performance by a 30 s Wingate test, before (PRE) and after (POST) supplementation. Interleukin-6 (IL-6), tumor necrosis factor-\u03b1 (TNF-\u03b1), creatine kinase (CK), and lactate (LA) were measured around exercise. Outcomes were analyzed with linear mixed-effects models; the primary estimand was the group \u00d7 phase interaction. Results: VO2peak did not differ between groups over time (PLA 55.00 \u00b1 7.60 \u2192 57.33 \u00b1 8.41; PRO 55.40 \u00b1 7.85 \u2192 53.14 \u00b1 5.95 mL\u00b7kg\u22121\u00b7min\u22121; group \u00d7 phase \u22123.5 mL\u00b7kg\u22121\u00b7min\u22121, 95% CI \u22127.0 to \u22120.1; nominal p = 0.044, not significant after FDR correction, adjusted p = 0.707). No group \u00d7 phase or group \u00d7 phase \u00d7 sampling-time interaction was significant for IL-6, TNF-\u03b1, LA, or CK (all interaction p &gt; 0.15), indicating that supplementation did not modify the exercise-induced response of any biomarker; exercise itself robustly increased IL-6, TNF-\u03b1, and LA in both groups (p &lt; 0.001). Conclusions: In trained male endurance runners consuming a standardized diet, four weeks of multistrain probiotic supplementation did not significantly affect aerobic or anaerobic performance, LA response, muscle-damage markers, or circulating inflammatory cytokines compared with placebo. Adequately powered trials with prespecified primary endpoints and direct microbiome assessment are needed.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/nu18152484","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,3]],"date-time":"2026-08-03T06:17:40Z","timestamp":1785737860000},"page":"2484","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["Multistrain Probiotic Supplementation Combined with a Standardized Diet Did Not Significantly Affect Exercise Performance or Inflammatory Responses in Male Endurance Runners: A Randomized Controlled Trial"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"18","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0736-6008","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Katarzyna","family":"Jag\u0142owska","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Physiology, Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport, 80-336 Gdansk, Poland"},{"name":"Division of Bioenergetics and Exercise Physiology, Medical University of Gdansk, 80-211 Gdansk, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7301-1689","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marcin","family":"Folwarski","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, Medical University of Gdansk, 80-211 Gdansk, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Maciej","family":"Chroboczek","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Physiology, Gdansk University of Physical Education and Sport, 80-336 Gdansk, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3037-1748","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Marta","family":"Potrykus","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics, Medical University of Gdansk, 80-211 Gdansk, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mariusz","family":"Kaczmarczyk","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemical Science, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, 71-460 Szczecin, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3430-9079","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Karolina","family":"Skonieczna-\u017bydecka","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biochemical Science, Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, 71-460 Szczecin, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6370-2160","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Jan Jacek","family":"Kaczor","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Animal and Human Physiology, Division of Bioenergetics, Faculty of Biology, University of Gdansk, 80-309 Gdansk, Poland"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,1]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1104","DOI":"10.1038\/s41591-019-0485-4","article-title":"Meta-Omics Analysis of Elite Athletes Identifies a Performance-Enhancing Microbe That Functions via Lactate Metabolism","volume":"25","author":"Scheiman","year":"2019","journal-title":"Nat. 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