The effects of physical activity and exercise on brain‐derived neurotrophic factor in healthy humans: A review

Huang, Tao; Larsen, Kristian Traberg; Ried‐Larsen, Mathias; Møller, Niels Christian; Andersen, Lars Bo

doi:10.1111/sms.12069

Cited by 369 publications

(302 citation statements)

References 60 publications

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“…However, Schiffer et al 29 describe no influence of aerobic training on resting BDNF levels in healthy sport students and most studies did not observe an influence of strength training on BDNF concentrations. 6 We speculate that acute and chronic changes of BDNF concentrations depend on age, the type of exercise, and the individual level of physical fitness before training.…”

Section: Structural Resultsmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Most studies suggest that both acute and enduring aerobic exercise lead to BDNF concentration elevations. 6 Brain-derived neurotrophic factor, a neurotrophin, is widely expressed in the brain, and influences neuronal survival, differentiation, axonal path-finding, regulation of dendritic trafficking to postsynaptic densities, 7 protection against neuronal death in the hippocampus, 8 and induction and maintenance of late-phase long-term potentiation. 9 Thus, BDNF is critically important to the cellular and subcellular processes that underlie learning and memory in healthy subjects and agingrelated diseases.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Hippocampal Structure, Metabolism, and Inflammatory Response after a 6-Week Intense Aerobic Exercise in Healthy Young Adults: A Controlled Trial

Wagner

Herbsleb

Cruz

et al. 2015

J Cereb Blood Flow Metab

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Interventional studies suggest that changes in physical fitness affect brain function and structure. We studied the influence of high intensity physical exercise on hippocampal volume and metabolism in 17 young healthy male adults during a 6-week exercise program compared with matched controls. We further aimed to relate these changes to hypothesized changes in exercisedinduced brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), interleukin-6 (IL-6), and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-α). We show profound improvement of physical fitness in most subjects and a positive correlation between the degree of fitness improvement and increased BDNF levels. We unexpectedly observed an average volume decrease of about 2%, which was restricted to right hippocampal subfields CA2/3, subiculum, and dentate gyrus and which correlated with fitness improvement and increased BDNF levels negatively. This result indicates that mainly those subjects who did not benefit from the exercise program show decreased hippocampal volume, reduced BDNF levels, and increased TNF-α concentrations. While spectroscopy results do not indicate any neuronal loss (unchanged N-acetylaspartate levels) decreased glutamate-glutamine levels were observed in the right anterior hippocampus in the exercise group only. Responder characteristics need to be studied in more detail. Our results point to an important role of the inflammatory response after exercise on changes in hippocampal structure.

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Section: Structural Resultsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hippocampal Structure, Metabolism, and Inflammatory Response after a 6-Week Intense Aerobic Exercise in Healthy Young Adults: A Controlled Trial

Wagner

Herbsleb

Cruz

et al. 2015

J Cereb Blood Flow Metab

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“…For instance, various subtypes of leukocytes can secrete S100B (Miki et al, 2013;Fujiya et al, 2014;Moutsatsou et al, 2014). Thrombocytes are the largest source for serum BDNF (Fujimura et al, 2002), adipocytes produce both S100B and BDNF (Fujiya et al, 2014;Huang et al, 2014), finally NSE may originate from damaged peripheral nerves (Li et al, 2013). Because we did not assume relevant biases related to these potentially confounding sources in minor depression, we did not control for potential non-brain sources of the serum markers in our study.…”

Section: Limitationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

First Evidence For Glial Pathology In Late Life Minor Depression: s100b Is Increased In Males With Minor Depression

et al. 2016

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Minor depression is diagnosed when a patient suffers from 2 to 4 depressive symptoms for at least 2 weeks. Though minor depression is a widespread phenomenon, its pathophysiology has hardly been studied. To get a first insight into the pathophysiological mechanisms underlying this disorder we assessed serum levels of biomarkers for plasticity, glial and neuronal function: brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), S100B and neuron specific enolase (NSE). 27 subjects with minor depressive episode and 82 healthy subjects over 60 years of age were selected from the database of the Leipzig population-based study of civilization diseases (LIFE). Serum levels of BDNF, S100B and NSE were compared between groups, and correlated with age, body-mass index (BMI), and degree of white matter hyperintensities (score on Fazekas scale). S100B was significantly increased in males with minor depression in comparison to healthy males, whereas other biomarkers did not differ between groups (p = 0.10-0.66). NSE correlated with Fazekas score in patients with minor depression (r s = 0.436, p = 0.048) and in the whole sample (r s = 0.252, p = 0.019). S100B correlated with BMI (r s = 0.246, p = 0.031) and with age in healthy subjects (r s = 0.345, p = 0.002). Increased S100B in males with minor depression, without alterations in BDNF and NSE, supports the glial hypothesis of depression. Correlation between white matter hyperintensities and NSE underscores the vascular hypothesis of late life depression.

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“…Another review by Zoladz et al [114] found consistent results regarding acute exercise but found the relationship between resting BDNF increases and chronic exercise less consistent. Further, a review done by Huang et al [115] found increases in peripheral BDNF concentrations in relation to both acute and chronic aerobic exercise. In short and of great importance to the EPIC treatment, there is a consistent increase in BDNF both promoting neuro-and synaptogenesis and cognitive enhancement after a single acute bout of aerobic exercise whereas the effects of chronic aerobic exercise training on BDNF levels is less clear.…”

Section: Nvc Re-regulationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neurovascular Coupling: A Unifying Theory for Post-Concussion Syndrome Treatment and Functional Neuroimaging

Ct¹,

Allen²

2017

J Neurol Neurophysiol

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Post-concussion syndrome (PCS) occurs in a significant percentage of concussion patients and is defined as having a history of traumatic brain injury with persistence of three or more symptoms. Standard structural clinical neuroimaging studies show no abnormal findings for the majority of PCS patients as opposed to functional MRI, which often reveals irregularities in the blood-oxygen level dependent (BOLD) signal. This suggests that dysregulation of neurovascular coupling, which causes abnormal BOLD signals, plays a significant role in PCS pathology. However, compared to the pathophysiologic mechanisms occurring in acute concussion, the underlying neuropathophysiology of chronic concussive sequelaeor PCS is less understood, though becoming clearer with emerging research. We present a treatment approach grounded in the physiological theory presented here called Enhanced Performance in Cognition (EPIC), which has shown strong clinical success. Dysregulation of neurovascular coupling (NVC), along with disruptions in cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR) and autonomic nervous system (ANS) dysregulation are the targets of EPIC treatment. Success of the approach itself tentatively supports the hypothesis that these three features figure prominently in the neuropathophysiology of PCS. The aim of this report is to provide a theory of the underlying mechanisms of PCS pathology and its treatment that is in accord with the current corpus of research and explains the recent therapeutic success seen in PCS patient using the EPIC treatment. We propose a novel theory concerning the mechanisms by which NVC dysregulation is normalized. This includes focused, intense and repetitive neurocognitive challenges during post-exercise cognitive boost and the avoidance of intracerebral steal in the setting of restored and re-regulated CVR and ANS. It is intended that both the theory and treatment approach are presented explicitly enough to generate empirical studies with clear hypothetical predictions from the theory as well as clinical innovations with significant relevance to improve current practices.

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The effects of physical activity and exercise on brain‐derived neurotrophic factor in healthy humans: A review

Cited by 369 publications

References 60 publications

Hippocampal Structure, Metabolism, and Inflammatory Response after a 6-Week Intense Aerobic Exercise in Healthy Young Adults: A Controlled Trial

Hippocampal Structure, Metabolism, and Inflammatory Response after a 6-Week Intense Aerobic Exercise in Healthy Young Adults: A Controlled Trial

First Evidence For Glial Pathology In Late Life Minor Depression: s100b Is Increased In Males With Minor Depression

Neurovascular Coupling: A Unifying Theory for Post-Concussion Syndrome Treatment and Functional Neuroimaging

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