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. 2011 Jun 20;8(1):5.
doi: 10.1186/1742-4933-8-5.

Identification of serum biomarkers for aging and anabolic response

Camellia Banerjee  1 , Jagadish Ulloor, Edgar L Dillon, Qusai Dahodwala, Brittani Franklin, Thomas Storer, Paola Sebastiani, Melinda Sheffield-Moore, Randall J Urban, Shalender Bhasin, Monty Montano
Affiliations

Identification of serum biomarkers for aging and anabolic response

Camellia Banerjee et al. Immun Ageing. .

Abstract

Objective: With the progressive aging of the human population, there is an inexorable decline in muscle mass, strength and function. Anabolic supplementation with testosterone has been shown to effectively restore muscle mass in both young and elderly men. In this study, we were interested in identifying serum factors that change with age in two distinct age groups of healthy men, and whether these factors were affected by testosterone supplementation.

Methods: We measured the protein levels of a number of serum biomarkers using a combination of banked serum samples from older men (60 to 75 years) and younger men (ages 18 to 35), as well as new serum specimens obtained through collaboration. We compared baseline levels of all biomarkers between young and older men. In addition, we evaluated potential changes in these biomarker levels in association with testosterone dose (low dose defined as 125 mg per week or below compared to high dose defined as 300 mg per week or above) in our banked specimens.

Results: We identified nine serum biomarkers that differed between the young and older subjects. These age-associated biomarkers included: insulin-like growth factor (IGF1), N-terminal propeptide of type III collagen (PIIINP), monokine induced by gamma interferon (MIG), epithelial-derived neutrophil-activating peptide 78 (ENA78), interleukin 7 (IL-7), p40 subunit of interleukin 12 (IL-12p40), macrophage inflammatory protein 1β (MIP-1β), platelet derived growth factor β (PDGFβ) and interferon-inducible protein 10 (IP-10). We further observed testosterone dose-associated changes in some but not all age related markers: IGF1, PIIINP, leptin, MIG and ENA78. Gains in lean mass were confirmed by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA).

Conclusions: Results from this study suggest that there are potential phenotypic biomarkers in serum that can be associated with healthy aging and that some but not all of these biomarkers reflect gains in muscle mass upon testosterone administration.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Baseline levels of biomarkers in young and old men. We evaluated a number of serum cytokines and chemokines in banked samples of older and younger men at baseline. Nine factors showed a significant change with age at these two groups (p-values from Student t-test < 0.05), and maintained statistically significant differences even after correcting for multiple comparison (p-value < 0.005).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Biomarker response based on testosterone dose in the young. We evaluated the change in biomarkers that differ significantly between low and higher doses of testosterone in younger subjects. P-values are indicated based on a Student t-test.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Biomarker response based on testosterone dose in the older group. We evaluated the change in biomarkers that differ significantly between low and higher doses of testosterone in older subjects. Leptin was found to be significant to a p-value of < 0.05, however both PIIINP and IGF1 showed a trend change. P-values are indicated based on a Student t-test.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Biomarker response based on testosterone dose in the young and old combined. We evaluated the change in biomarkers that differ significantly between low and higher dose of testosterone in combined young and older subjects. Three factors in addition to DEXA were found to be significant to p-value less than 0.05. P-values are indicated based on a Student t-test.
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