Cellular damage caused by free radical reactions may play a role in the aging process. A bout of exercise can increase free radical concentration with damage to mitochondria in muscle (Davies et al., 1982). This study was undertaken to determine if muscle adapts to exercise training with an enhancement of enzymatic defenses against free radical damage. A program of running that induced two-fold increases in mitochondrial enzymes in leg muscles of rats resulted in no increase in catalase or cytoplasmic superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities. Mitochondrial SOD activity was increased 37% in fast-twitch red and slow-twitch red types of muscle and 14% in white muscle. Thus, despite an increase in mitochondrial SOD, the ratio of SOD to mitochondrial citrate cycle and respiratory chain enzymes was decreased. It seems unlikely that increased capacity for enzymatic scavenging of superoxide radical is a major protective adaptation against free radical damage in exercise-trained muscle.

Muscle contractile activity results in an increase in glucose uptake rate that can persist for hours. This study was undertaken to determine the effect of carbohydrate repletion on reversal of an exercise-induced increase in glucose uptake. Rats were exercised by swimming. In rats studied 60 min after exercise, muscle glycogen content was 75% depleted and glucose uptake rate was increased. The effect of exercise on glucose uptake was reversed, and glycogen concentration had increased 44 mumol/g muscle, within 18 h in rats fed carbohydrate. In rats fed a carbohydrate-free diet, muscle glycogen increased only 11 mumol/g, and glucose uptake rate had returned only 50% of the way to base line 18 h after exercise. The rate of 3-methylglucose accumulation in muscles was increased sixfold 60 min after exercise. This increase in permeability to sugar was reversed within 18 h in rats fed carbohydrate. In rats fed a carbohydrate-free diet the rate of 3-methylglucose accumulation was still threefold above base line 18 h after exercise. Our results provide evidence that decreased availability of carbohydrate slows reversal of an exercise-induced increase in permeability of muscle to sugar.

Young rats maintained on an iron-deficient diet developed severe anemia and had large decreases in the levels of the iron-containing flavoproteins and cytochromes of the mitochondrial respiratory chain in skeletal muscle. In contrast, the levels of a number of mitochondrial matrix marker enzymes, including citrate synthase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, 3-ketoacid-CoA transferase, and aspartate aminotransferase, increased in red skeletal muscle but not in white muscle. Phosphocreatine concentration was decreased and inorganic phosphate concentration was increased in soleus muscle frozen in situ. We hypothesize that the increase in mitochondrial matrix enzymes reflects a stimulus to mitochondrial biogenesis in posture-maintaining and weight-bearing red muscle fibers in severely iron-deficient rats. It is our working hypothesis that this stimulus to mitochondrial biogenesis arises from mild activity of the red fibers and is due to the same perturbation in cellular homeostasis that is normally caused by vigorous exercise or hypoxia. In iron deficiency, the stimulus to mitochondrial biogenesis can induce an increase in only those enzymes not prevented from increasing by iron deficiency, resulting in formation of mitochondria of grossly abnormal composition.

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Outside of LDL-C and TG, little changes were seen in lipid parameters in the postprandial state. A large part of these changes could be explained by the biological variation. We observed a gradual widening in the range of increase in TG for patients with higher fasting TG. Non-HDL-C and ApoB should be the treatment target of choice for patients in the non-fasting state.

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