Plasma cardiovascular stress biomarkers response to marathon running

Abstract

Background: Habitual physical activity is known to support cardiovascular health. However, when intensive exercise is performed for long durations, it can negatively affect the cardiovascular system. We evaluated the exercise-induced physiological responses of cardiac markers in male marathon runners based on basal plasma trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) levels, a metabolite related to major adverse cardiovascular events.

Methods: Blood samples from 28 marathon runners were collected two weeks before the marathon run (baseline), after finishing the race (post-marathon), and two weeks after the race (2 weeks post-marathon). Serum cardiac troponin I (cTnI), endothelin-1 (ET-1), galectin-3, pentraxin-3, human growth differentiation factor 15, and neopterin were determined by the enzyme immunoassay method. Plasma trimethylamine (TMA) and TMAO were measured by the ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry method.

Results: Running a marathon increased levels of circulating biomarkers. A greater post-marathon elevation of cTnI and ET-1 was associated with baseline plasma TMAO levels (R= 0.400, p = 0.035 and R = 0.476, p = 0.012, respectively). Moreover, we observed an increase in post-marathon TMA levels.

Conclusion: Greater post-marathon elevation of cTnI and ET-1 was associated with higher baseline plasma TMAO levels. Therefore, TMAO could potentially serve as a new marker in assessing the response of cardiovascular stress biomarkers to marathon running.

Keywords

Cardiovascular biomarkers / Endurance exercise / Galectin-3 / Human growth differentiation factor 15 / Neopterin / Post-marathon / Trimethylamine-N-Oxide / White blood cells

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Anna Siekierzycka: Resources, Methodology, Investigation. Adrianna Radulska: Resources, Methodology, Investigation. Marcin Woźniak: Methodology, Investigation. Iwona Pelikant-Małecka: Methodology, Investigation. Anna Janaszak-Jasiecka: Methodology, Investigation. Ewa Lewicka: Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Leszek Kalinowski: Writing review & editing, -Supervision, Funding acquisition, Conceptualization. Robert A. Olek: Writing original draft, Visualization, Formal analysis, Conceptualization.

Ethical approval statement

The study was implemented in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki. The study protocol was reviewed and approved by the Inde-pendent Bioethics Committee for Scientific Research of the Medical University of Gdansk, Gdansk, Poland (No. NKBBN 104/2016). Partici-pants were informed about the experimental procedure prior to obtaining their written informed consent.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Funding

This research was supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, grant no.2/566516/SPUB/SP/2023.

Declaration of competing interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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