Differential cardiac biomarker responses to aerobic exercise in sedentary individuals and trained athletes

Acute aerobic exercise can increase cardiac troponin T (cTn-T) and B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) concentrations in healthy individuals, but the influence of training status on the magnitude of this response remains unclear. This study compared acute exercise-induced cTn-T and BNP responses in 60 healthy men aged 18–25 years, including 30 professional football players and 30 sedentary individuals. Participants completed 45 min of outdoor aerobic running at 50–80% of age-predicted maximal heart rate, with heart rate continuously monitored. Venous blood was obtained immediately before and after exercise, and serum cTn-T and BNP were measured using commercial ELISA kits. Within-group pre- to post-exercise changes were assessed with paired-samples t-tests, and individual relative changes were compared between groups using independent-samples t-tests. cTn-T increased significantly in both trained (36.70 ± 4.1 to 41.9 ± 4.2 ng/L, p < 0.0001) and sedentary participants (31.87 ± 2.1 to 48.34 ± 2.8 ng/L, p < 0.0001); the mean individual relative increase was greater in the sedentary group (59.7% vs. 19.6%, p = 0.002). BNP also increased significantly in both groups, with a greater relative increase in sedentary participants (39% vs. 19%, p < 0.05). These findings indicate an attenuated acute biomarker response in trained participants, which may reflect training-associated cardiovascular adaptation. Because only immediate post-exercise samples were obtained and research-use ELISA assays were used, the findings do not establish biomarker kinetics or equivalence to clinical diagnostic thresholds. The results may help contextualize exercise-related biomarker changes in sports-science research.