Date of Completion

Spring 5-1-2023

Thesis Advisor(s)

Elaine C. Lee

Honors Major

Exercise Science

Disciplines

Amino Acids, Peptides, and Proteins | Sports Sciences

Abstract

BACKGROUND/PURPOSE: To support long-term study into the salivary -omics responses to stress that may be used in biomonitoring during exercise and environmental stress, we pursued a focused study to establish optimized protocols and demonstrate that stress-specific markers are expressed to sufficient detectable limits and responsive to rest, exercise-heat stress, and to multi-day acclimation. Exosomes are extracellular vesicles, >150 nm in diameter secreted by multiple cell types and contain potentially stress-, disease-, or cell-damage-specific proteins, mRNAs, and miRNAs. Exosomes can be fractionated by their solubility and density from a variety of biofluids and probed for vesicular biomarkers (vs. freely circulating or with carrier proteins). In this first step study, our purpose was to determine: 1) the expression of stress-specific marker, Hsp72 in the saliva exosome fraction, and if so, 2) quantify differences in exosome and saliva [Hsp72] during acute heat stress tests and acclimation. METHODS: Saliva was acquired during two heat tolerance tests administered before and after a ~1 week heat acclimation from men (n=3) and women (n=3). Whole saliva was processed and fractionated to isolate saliva exosomes for analyses. Hsp72 was analyzed in samples using a high-sensitivity ELISA kit (Enzo Life Sciences). Physiological variables (HR, Trec) were used to confirm the stress of the exercise-heat exposures. RESULTS: Hsp72 expression was detected in saliva exosomes and there were no significant differences between men and women during acute exposures an acclimation, despite some differences in physiological responses. CONCLUSION: Hsp72 was detected in saliva samples and exosome samples, and although not responsive acutely to stress, ongoing work will pursue more sensitive -omics analysis of saliva and exosome extracts using protocols optimized in this study.

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