The association between lactate and muscle aerobic substrate oxidation: Is lactate an early marker for metabolic disease in healthy subjects?

Abstract

Fasting plasma lactate concentrations are elevated in individuals with metabolic disease. The aim of this study was to determine if the variance in fasting lactate concentrations were associated with factors linked with cardiometabolic health even in a young, lean cohort. Young (age 22 ± 0.5; N = 30) lean (BMI (22.4 ± 0.4 kg/m2) women were assessed for waist‐to‐hip ratio, aerobic capacity (VO2peak), skeletal muscle oxidative capacity (near infrared spectroscopy; fat oxidation from muscle biopsies), and fasting glucose and insulin (HOMA‐IR). Subjects had a mean fasting lactate of 0.9 ± 0.1 mmol/L. The rate of deoxygenation of hemoglobin/myoglobin (R2 = .23, p = .03) in resting muscle and skeletal muscle homogenate fatty acid oxidation (R2 = .72, p = .004) were inversely associated with fasting lactate. Likewise, cardiorespiratory fitness (time to exhaustion during the VO2peak test) was inversely associated with lactate (R2 = .20, p = .05). Lactate concentration was inversely correlated with HDL:LDL (R2 = .57, p = .02) and positively correlated with the waist to hip ratio (R2 = .52, p = .02). Plasma lactate was associated with various indices of cardiometabolic health. Thus, early determination of fasting lactate concentration could become a common biomarker used for identifying individuals at early risk for metabolic diseases.

The Relationship between Training Cycle-Dependent Fluctuations in Resting Blood Lactate Levels and Exercise Performance in College-Aged Rugby Players

“…The mechanism by which fasting plasma lactate concentrations increase in patients with cardiometabolic diseases is thought to be a compensatory increase in glycolysis due to the reduced aerobic substrate oxidation capacity associated with decreased mitochondrial function and quantity [ 1 ]. Recently, a negative correlation between fasting La − levels and lipid oxidation capacity and endurance exercise capacity was reported in a study on healthy women without metabolic disease [ 30 ]. This study points to the usefulness of the resting La − concentration as a biomarker for the early detection of metabolic diseases.…”

Effects of exercise at the anaerobic threshold on respiratory quotient in young male subjects

“…The exercise study performed in normal subjects showed marked increase in fat oxidation in anaerobic threshold compared to low and heavy exercise intensity (11). There is a close relationship between lactate and substrate utilisation (19). Anaerobic threshold is the highest point of without increase of blood lactate levels (2).…”