Potential biomarkers of muscle injury after eccentric exercise

Abstract

Proteomics was utilized to identify novel potential plasma biomarkers of exercise-induced muscle injury. Muscle injury was induced in nine human volunteers by eccentric upper extremity exercise. Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry identified 30 peptides derived from nine proteins which showed significant change in abundance post-exercise. Four of these proteins, haemoglobin α chain, haemoglobin β chain, α1-antichymotrypsin (ACT) and plasma C-1 protease inhibitor (C1 Inh), met the criterion for inclusion based on changes in at least two distinct peptides. ACT and C1 Inh peptides peaked earlier post-exercise than creatine kinase, and thus appear to provide new information on muscle response to injury.

Keywords::

• Exercise
• α1-antichymotrypsin
• C-1 protease inhibitor
• proteomics

Acknowledgements

Declaration of interest

This study was supported by the General Clinical Research Center of Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor UCLA Medical Center, with funds provided by the National Center for Research Resources, grant no. 5 M01 RR00425, US Public Health Service, and by Rosetta Inpharmatics, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Merck & Co, Inc. K.E.S. and E.P.B. were consultants to Rosetta InPharmatics/Merck Research Laboratories at the time the work was completed. F.M., N.A.Y., R.C.H., A.L., Q.S. and R.G.U. were employees of Rosetta InPharmatics/Merck Research Laboratories at the time the work was completed.