Volume 6, Spring 2008 - Saddleback College

Fall 2007 Biology 3A Abstracts
time, all ten lizards were submitted to an individual
training run time on a motor driven treadmill provided
by the Biological Science Research Lab at Saddleback
College. Each lizard was placed on the treadmill with a
small plexiglas box over their body in order to sustain
them on the treadmill. Treadmill speed was
continuously adjusted to complement the lizards’
sprinting speed.
Once already trained, by the end of the second
week the lizards’ run times were tested for one final
control run and a simple minute stop watch was used to
determine the lizards’ run time in seconds until
exhaustion was reached. Exhaustion appeared obvious
when each lizard flipped over on their back without
moving for a certain time. After time had been
determined, the lizards were not subjected to another
run for the next ten days. Moreover, in the following
two weeks the diet of the lizards was rapidly changed.
Instead of only feeding them 40 crickets three times a
week, a new supplement, creatine monohydrate pure
powder, had been introduced to their diet along with
the crickets.
During this experimentation session of two
weeks long, 40 crickets were placed in a freezer size
Ziploc plastic bag to dust them in 100 grams of
creatine powder. Once the crickets had been dusted,
they were evenly distributed among all ten lizards,
which had already been separated within the room.
After consuming the food, they were returned back to
their short term home, the aquarium. This process
occurred three times a week for two consecutive
weeks, in order to test for a higher endurance in the
lizards’ run times.
According to previous studies, all lizards
needed to be trained to run on the motor driven
treadmill one more time before the final
experimentation session, otherwise a greater standard
error could perhaps be obtained. Therefore two days
before the actual finale, all ten lizards were trained
exactly as the previous time. On the last day of the two
weeks, all lizards consumed crickets dusted in 100
grams of creatine 30 minutes to 1 hour before exercise.
Prior to experimentation, each lizard was removed
from the carry on bin into an isolated plastic bucket.
Since temperature in the research lab stated 68ºF, warm
water was left running in the sink were the bucket had
been placed to maintain a satisfying temperature for the
lizards. Five minutes before run time, each lizard then
was placed one by one in a blue, plastic bin to reach
normal respiration. After five minutes, the lizard from
the blue bin was placed onto the treadmill and tested
for the run time until complete exhaustion under the
consumption of creatine monohydrate pure powder.
Process was critically repeated for all ten lizards’ run
times in the same manner and time was recorded in
seconds same as the control variable.
Results between both groups were later
compared, by using a t-test of two variables and
average means of the total run times.
Equation: Average Mean = (n 1 +…+ n 10 )
Total
Results
Run time in Western fence lizards (S.
occidentalis) could be increased with a relatively small
amount of consumption of creatine monohydrate pure
powder. The endurance and run times of the lizards
were determined among ten lizards which underwent a
normal run and a run under the consumption of creatine
powder, an amino acid which generates energy. Times
were recorded between both control and experiment
variables (Table 1), displaying the effect of the
supplement in the run times of the lizards.
Endurance in the lizards was greatly affected
by the amount of creatine provided to them,
demonstrating a great significant difference in both
groups through the mean averages of their run times
(Figure 1). Lizards appeared thoroughly fatigued in the
first two weeks of the experiment and rather fast and
energetic by the end of the month period due to the
ATP generated from the dietary supplement.
Run Time in Seconds
250
200
150
100
50
0
No Creatine Creatine Consumed
Figure 1. A statistical significance between the No creatine
group with a mean average of 174.5 seconds (S.E. ± 3.7) and
Creatine consumed group with a much greater average of
202.3 seconds (S.E. 4.3) both with a value P < 0.05.
Discussion
Creatine kinase plays an important role in
energy metabolism catalyzing the reversed transfer of a
phosphyl group to creatine and MgATP (Wood and
Guan, 1988). In addition, creatine by means of
phosphagen can become an intracellular energy
delivering massive amounts of ATP causing greater
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Saddleback Journal of Biology
Spring 2008