“Lactate Infusion at Rest Increases BDNF Blood Concentration in Humans”, Thorsten Schiffer, Stefanie Schulte, Billy Sperlich, Silvia Achtzehn, Hannes Fricke, Heiko K. Strüder2011-01-25 (, )⁠:

Studies in humans use blood lactate to determine the degree of exercise intensity, suggesting that exercise with elevated blood lactate concentrations results in increased BDNF plasma concentrations. However, it is not clear if lactate per se or rather other mechanisms are responsible for changes in blood BDNF concentrations.

The lactate clamp method at rest is an appropriate method to examine physiological responses of lactate on the human organism without the effects of exercise. 8 male sport students placed in a sitting position received intravenous infusions with a 4 molar sodium-lactate solution in an incremental design starting with an infusion rate of 0.01 ml/kgBW/min for the first 3 minutes, which was increased every 3 minutes by 0.01 ml/kgBW/min up to 0.08 ml/kg/min in the 24th minute. All together each subject received 4.2 mmol of infusion.

Venous blood samples were taken before and immediately after the infusion as well as in the 24th and the 60th min after the infusion period and analyzed for BDNF. Blood gases and capillary blood lactate (La) were analyzed before the test, every 3 minutes directly before increasing the infusion rate, at the end of the infusion and in the post infusion period until the 12th min and after 24 and 60 min.

BDNF and La increased statistically-significantly after the infusion and reached baseline values at the end of the experiment (p < 0.05, p < 0.01, respectively). pH and hydrogen ions increased from the beginning until the end of the infusion period (p < 0.01).

This data suggest that blood lactate is involved in the regulation of BDNF blood concentrations.

[Keywords: neurotrophins, acidosis, alkalosis, sodium-lactate]