RESEARCH ARTICLE
Serum Neuregulin-1β as a Biomarker of Cardiovascular Fitness
Vaibhav Moondra#, 1, Satyam Sarma†, 1, Tracy Buxton2, Radwan Safa2, 3, Gregory Cote$, 2, Thomas Storer2, Nathan K LeBrasseur2, Douglas B Sawyer*, 2, 3
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2009Volume: 2
First Page: 1
Last Page: 5
Publisher ID: TOBIOMJ-2-1
DOI: 10.2174/1875318300902010001
Article History:
Received Date: 27/10/2008Revision Received Date: 09/01/2009
Acceptance Date: 10/09/2009
Electronic publication date: 27/2/2009
Collection year: 2009
open-access license: This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License (CC-BY 4.0), a copy of which is available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode. This license permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Purpose:
Neuregulins (NRG) are growth factors that bind to receptors of the erbB family, and are known to mediate a number of processes involved in diverse tissues. Neuregulin-1β is expressed in skeletal muscle and is activated by exercise. We hypothesized that NRG-1β might circulate in the bloodstream and increase as a consequence of physical activity. A study was conducted in healthy subjects to determine if NRG-1β is immunodetectable in human serum, and if so whether levels relate acutely or chronically to exercise.
Methods:
Nine healthy men underwent three bouts of exercise of varying degrees of intensity on a bicycle ergometer over a period of three weeks. Cardio-respiratory fitness was determined by measurement of maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max). Serum was sampled prior to and immediately after each session (up to 30 minutes post) and serum NRG-1ß was quantified utilizing an indirect sandwich ELISA assay developed in our lab.
Results:
Across subjects, mean serum NRG-1β levels ranged from 32 ng/mL to 473 ng/mL. Individual subjects showed relatively stable levels during the study period that did not change acutely after exercise. Serum NRG-1β demonstrated a positive correlation with VO2max (r2=0.49, p =.044).
Conclusions:
These preliminary observations suggest that at least in healthy men, serum NRG-1β is an indicator of cardio- respiratory fitness and does not change acutely with exercise.
