Effects of endurance exercise on the urinary proteome analyzed by 2D-PAGE and Orbitrap mass spectrometry

Exercise-induced proteinuria is a well known phenomenon and the influence of parameters as intensity and duration was studied extensively. Usually, total protein or albumin was measured for diagnosis of a proteinuria, but qualitative changes in protein composition or the relative amount of various proteins were not considered. The present study was performed to search for qualitative differences in the urinary proteome before and after endurance exercise by means of 2D-PAGE and to identify the altered proteins by mass spectrometry. The study yielded several proteins such as hemopexin, albumin, orosomucoid 1, transferrin or carbonic anhydrase 1 that were elevated after a marathon run in comparison to a control group. These are linked to physiological changes resulting from endurance exercise such as destruction of erythrocytes or increased fat metabolism. On the contrary, 2D-PAGE profiles of athletes at rest did not differ from those of control samples. The study is a starting point to build up individual 2D-PAGE protein maps of athletes. Further studies will investigate intra-individual differences and further exercise parameters which potentially lead to a physiological monitoring system for athletes in training and competition and may also complement the blood passport in doping control. Verf.-Referat