Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 Jul 4:3:867137.
doi: 10.3389/fragi.2022.867137. eCollection 2022.

Musculoskeletal Biomarkers Response to Exercise in Older Adults

Eduardo L Abreu  1 , Amy Vance  2 , An-Lin Cheng  3 , Marco Brotto  4
Affiliations

Musculoskeletal Biomarkers Response to Exercise in Older Adults

Eduardo L Abreu et al. Front Aging. .

Abstract

Exercise is an essential component of any good health style, being particularly important for older adults to counteract the effects of aging, including sarcopenia and osteoporosis, which can result in lower fall probability. Exercise programs for older adults are especially designed for that population. A rigorous evaluation of those programs is necessary to assure most benefit is achieved. Serum biomarkers of proteins intrinsic to musculoskeletal homeostasis could contribute objectively to the assessment of the benefits of exercise. In this work, in addition to the usual physical fitness and balance tests, ELISA assays quantified the serum levels of six proteins and one polysaccharide important for the homeostasis of muscle (troponin T and alpha-actinin), tendon/ligament (tenomodulin), cartilage (cartilage oligomeric matrix protein and hyaluronan) and bone (osteocalcin and sclerostin), before and after 8 weeks of an exercise program tailored to older adults, Stay Strong Stay Healthy, offered at a Community Center and at an Independent Senior Living facility. Statistical significance was determined by non-parametric tests (Wilcoxon Signed Ranks and Mann-Whitney U). Physical fitness and balance improved as expected along with a significant decrease in sclerostin, pointing to less inhibition of bone deposition. However, when considering each type of dwelling separately, older adults always saw a significant decrease of the isoform of troponin T associated with fast-twitch muscles, suggesting that daily levels of physical activity may also have a role in the benefit of older adults from exercise.

Keywords: aging; biomarker; exercise; musculoskeletal; osteocalcin; sclerostin; troponin T.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Box plots of muscle-related biomarkers skeletal muscle troponin T, fast and slow, and alpha-Actinin before and after the exercise program SSSH.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Box plots of tendon/ligament-related (tenomodulin) and cartilage-related (cartilage oligomeric matrix protein and hyaluronan) biomarkers before and after the exercise program SSSH.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Box plots of bone-related biomarkers osteocalcin and sclerostin before and after the exercise program SSSH. Significance indicated by * (p = 0.003)
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Box plots of percent changes after the exercise program SSSH in skeletal muscle troponin T fast per dwelling. Significance indicated by * (p = 0.014)
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Main effects of exercise on biomarkers associated with tissues of the musculoskeletal system, also showing potential interrelationship or crosstalk between muscle and bone.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Aartolahti E., Lönnroos E., Hartikainen S., Häkkinen A. (2020). Long-Term Strength and Balance Training in Prevention of Decline in Muscle Strength and Mobility in Older Adults. Aging Clin. Exp. Res. 32 (1), 59–66. 10.1007/s40520-019-01155-0 - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Abreu E. L., Cheng A.-L., Kelly P. J., Chertoff K., Brotto L., Griffith E., et al. (2014). Skeletal Muscle Troponin as a Novel Biomarker to Enhance Assessment of the Impact of Strength Training on Fall Prevention in the Older Adults. Nurs. Res. 63 (2), 75–82. 10.1097/NNR.0000000000000018 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Alexandrov V. P., Naimov S. I. (2016). A Prospectus of Tenomodulin. Folia Med. Plovdiv. 58 (1), 19–27. 10.1515/folmed-2016-0003 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Ball S., Gammon R., Kelly P. J., Cheng A.-L., Chertoff K., Kaume L., et al. (2013). Outcomes of Stay Strong, Stay Healthy in Community Settings. J. Aging Health 25 (8), 1388–1397. 10.1177/0898264313507318 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Bates A., Furber S., Tiedemann A., Ginn K., van den Dolder P., Howard K., et al. (2018). Trial Protocol: Home-Based Exercise Programs to Prevent Falls and Upper Limb Dysfunction Among Community-Dwelling Older People: Study Protocol for the BEST (Balance Exercise Strength Training) at Home Randomised, Controlled Trial. J. Physiother. 64 (2), 121. 10.1016/j.jphys.2017.10.001 - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources