Effects of Acute Endurance Exercise on Plasma Protein Profiles of Endurance-Trained and Untrained Individuals over Time

Abstract

Acute physical exercise and repeated exercise stimuli affect whole-body metabolic and immunologic homeostasis. The aim of this study was to determine plasma protein profiles of trained (EET, n = 19) and untrained (SED, n = 17) individuals at rest and in response to an acute bout of endurance exercise. Participants completed a bicycle exercise test at an intensity corresponding to 80% of their VO2max. Plasma samples were taken before, directly after, and three hours after exercise and analyzed using multiplex immunoassays. Seventy-eight plasma variables were included in the final analysis. Twenty-nine variables displayed significant acute exercise effects in both groups. Seven proteins differed between groups, without being affected by acute exercise. Among these A2Macro and IL-5 were higher in EET individuals while leptin showed elevated levels in SED individuals. Fifteen variables revealed group and time differences with elevated levels for IL-3, IL-7, IL-10, and TNFR2 in EET individuals. An interaction effect could be observed for nine variables including IL-6, MMP-2, MMP-3, and muscle damage markers. The proteins that differ between groups indicate a long-term exercise effect on plasma protein concentrations. These findings might be of importance in the development of exercise-based strategies in the prevention and therapy of chronic metabolic and inflammatory diseases and for training monitoring.

Figure 1

Experimental setup of the study enrollment.

Figure 2

Hierarchical cluster analysis of significant variables with (a) main effect time point and (b) group, group and time, and interaction effect at each time point between EET and SED individuals using Ward's method. Differences are represented by the computed RTEs. Red colour representing higher and green lower RTEs. EET: endurance-exercise-trained; SED: untrained/sedentary.