Changes in the Salivary Biomarkers Induced by an Effort Test

Abstract

Physical exercise induces biochemical changes in the body that modify analytes in blood and saliva among other body fluids. This study analyzed the effect of an incremental effort test on the salivary protein profile to determine whether any specific protein is altered in response to such stress. We also measured thresholds of salivary alpha amylase, total salivary protein and blood lactate and searched for correlations among them. Twelve male cyclists underwent a progressive test in which blood and saliva samples were collected simultaneously at each stage. The salivary total protein profile revealed that physical exercise primarily affects the polypeptide corresponding to salivary alpha-amylase, the concentration of which increased markedly during the test. We observed thresholds of salivary alpha-amylase (sAAT), total salivary protein (PAT) and blood lactate (BLT) in 58%, 83% and 100% of our sample, respectively. Pearson's correlation indicates a strong and significant association between sAAT and BLT (r= 0.84, P<0.05), sAAT and PAT (r= 0.83, P<0.05) and BLT and PAT (r= 0.90, P<0.05). The increased expression of the salivary alpha-amylase (sAA) polypeptide suggests that sAA is the main protein responsible for the increase in total protein concentration of whole saliva. Therefore, monitoring total protein concentration is an efficient tool and an alternative noninvasive biochemical method for determining exercise intensity.

Development of a Simple and Fast Electrochemical Method to Evaluate Physical Stress in Athletes

“…The intensity of peak currents presents a slow increase until 10 min of exercise (250 W of work). After this, an exponential increase was observed that can be correlated with the protein anaerobic threshold, a parameter that can be used to evaluate the physical condition of athletes [20]. It is important to emphasize that the results presented in Fig.…”

“…According to Calvo et al [6] and Chicharro et al [7], both AT and TSA can be related to the same point. Recently, Bortolini et al and Oliveira et al [19,20] found the same results, however they correlated the total protein anaerobic threshold (PAT) with the AT parameter.…”

“…There are some drawbacks related to fouling of the electrodes due to the presence of species that become adsorbed onto the working surface of the working electrode, decreasing the analytical signal and sometimes restricting its use in real samples. Considering saliva samples, physical stress, and gold electrodes, four levels of previous knowledge can be considered: (1) monitoring the total protein concentration in whole saliva can be used for determining physical stress in athletes [19,20], (2) proteins are the principal biochemical constituents of human saliva [25], (3) proteins adsorb spontaneously onto gold surfaces [26][27][28] and, consequently, their analysis is possible using gold electrodes, and (4) pulsed amperometric detection (PAD) is a technique that can be used successfully to reduce electrode passivation and/or adsorption problems when gold electrodes are used [29,30].…”

Saliva as a diagnostic fluid in sports medicine: potential and limitations

“…Several studies have demonstrated increases in the concentration of salivary α-amylase during and after exercise in comparison with basal values (11,13) . In this context, Calvo et al (7) proposed the use of SAA as an indicator of anaerobic threshold in incremental exercise on treadmill.…”

The Salivary Bone Spesific Alkaline Phosphatase in Relation to Pubertal Growth Phase in Indonesian Children

“…It is used to examine the changes in overall protein secretion in biologic fluids or to look for differences in the ratio of specific proteins to total protein that occur in response to physiological changes. Measurement of total protein was used to normalize concentrations of various salivary proteins in different samples since concentrations can vary significantly in response to stimulation or alterations of saliva flow [17][18][19][20].…”