The Effect of Cycling, Running, and Playing Rugby on Three Biomarkers That May Indicate Brain Injury

Plain-language summary

The goal of this clinical trial was to determine if and how the biomarkers neurofilament light (NfL), brain lipid binding protein (BLBP), and amyloid precursor protein (APP) accumulated over 72 hours in venous blood following running, cycling, or playing rugby as compared to a non-exercising control group. Participants in this study were recreationally active and healthy males and females 18 - 49 years of age. The main questions it aimed to answer was: Do NfL, BLBP, and APP increase following exercise? Researchers compared the accumulation of NfL, BLBP, and NfL among runners, cyclists, rugby players, controls, and between sexes in each category. Participants were asked to either run, bike, play a rugby match, or abstain from exercise. In the exercising group, blood was drawn from a vein prior to the activity, immediately after the activity, 30 minutes after the activity, 1 hour after the activity, 24 hours after the activity, 48 hours after the activity, and 72 hours after the activity. In the non-exercising group blood was drawn from a vein one time.

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