Detection of titin fragments in urine in response to exercise-induced muscle damage

PLoS One. 2017 Jul 20;12(7):e0181623. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0181623. eCollection 2017.

Abstract

Many studies have attempted to determine the associations between blood biomarkers and exercise-induced muscle damage. However, poor correlations between the changes in biomarker levels and the magnitude of muscle symptoms have been reported. Recent advances in proteomic tools offer a strategy for the comprehensive analysis of protein expression, which can be used to identify biomarkers. Here, we used a proteomic analysis to identify urinary proteins that appear in response to a calf-raise exercise, including repetitive eccentric muscle contractions, and found that a titin (also known as connectin) N-terminal fragment molecule appears in the urine after eccentric exercise. We measured the titin fragment in urine samples from nine individuals before and after eccentric exercise using a newly-established enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and found that the titin fragment excretion rate increased 96 h after the exercise (5.1 to 77.6 pg/min, p <0.01). The changes in the titin fragment excretion rate were correlated strongly with blood markers of muscle damage and with muscle symptoms. These findings suggest that the urinary titin fragment is potentially a noninvasive biomarker of muscle damage.

MeSH terms

  • Analysis of Variance
  • Biomarkers / blood
  • Biomarkers / urine
  • Chromatography, High Pressure Liquid
  • Connectin / genetics
  • Connectin / urine*
  • Electrophoresis
  • Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay / methods
  • Exercise* / physiology
  • Humans
  • Immunoblotting
  • Leg / physiopathology
  • Male
  • Muscle Contraction / physiology
  • Muscle Strength / physiology
  • Muscle, Skeletal / injuries*
  • Muscle, Skeletal / metabolism
  • Protein Domains
  • Proteome
  • Young Adult

Substances

  • Biomarkers
  • Connectin
  • Proteome
  • TTN protein, human

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Grant-in Aid for Scientific Research (A) (23240097, 15H0183) and the Strategic Research Foundation at Private Universities from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, Japan. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.