Fig. 3.

Cardiac muscle-enriched c-miR-208a is elevated after prolonged aerobic exercise and is downregulated 24 h postexercise. A: c-miR-208a increased significantly after prolonged exercise and decreased nearly 50-fold by POST-24 to levels not significantly different from baseline. B: troponin I levels increased after prolonged aerobic exercise. However, despite falling significantly in the time period at FINISH and POST-24, troponin I levels remained significantly elevated POST-24 compared with prerun. C: ultrasensitive troponin I levels were significantly upregulated and increased after exercise but only subtly decreased POST-24. D: NH₂-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels were also significantly increased postexercise, but exhibited only a slight, nonstatistically significant decrease in the 24 h following completion of exercise. Thus levels at 24 h postexercise were still significantly higher than preexercise. In A–D, for each marathon athlete, biomarker levels are presented in a similar manner to that of Fig. 1B. All panels are labeled with statistical medians, IQR, and P values of comparisons between conditions.