Research Scientist Weill Cornell Medical College, United States
Abstract: Dried blood spots (DBS) have emerged as a minimally invasive biosampling method for proteomic analyses, offering novel insights into the inflammatory and regenerative processes associated with endurance exercise. This study leveraged the NULISAseq 250-plex Inflammation Panel to evaluate the proteomic shifts in endurance athletes before, during, and after a half-marathon. Our findings indicate a dynamic inflammatory response, characterized by significant changes in key cytokines and growth factors implicated in tissue repair, immune modulation, and cellular regeneration. Notably, biomarkers such as IL-6, VEGFD, and TNFRSF8 exhibited time-dependent fluctuations, suggesting their potential role in stem cell activation and recruitment during exercise-induced stress and recovery. Given the established link between systemic inflammation and stem cell mobilization, our data support the hypothesis that endurance exercise may serve as a physiological stimulus for endogenous stem cell activity. Furthermore, the ability to capture these proteomic signatures using DBS underscores the feasibility of field-based, high-throughput biomarker discovery for regenerative medicine applications. These findings highlight the potential of integrating exercise physiology with stem cell research to optimize recovery strategies and therapeutic interventions for tissue repair and regeneration.
Funding Source: WorldQuant Initiative for Quantitative Prediction
