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Responses of fatigable and fatigue-resistant fibres of rabbit muscle to low-frequency stimulation

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Abstract

This study investigates early adaptive responses of fast-twitch muscle to increased contractile activity by low-frequency stimulation. Changes in metabolite levels and activities of regulatory enzymes of carbohydrate metabolism were investigated in rabbit tibialis anterior muscle after 24 h of stimulation. In addition, changes elicited during a 5-min lasting acute stimulation experiment were compared between 24-hprestimulated and contralateral control muscles. Stimulation for 5 min reduced energy-rich phosphates and glycogen, and increased lactate in the control muscle. A transient elevation of fructose 2,6-bisphosphate demonstrated that activation of phosphofructokinase 2 was an immediate response to contractile activity. Prestimulated muscles displayed nearly normal values for ATP, phosphocreatine and glycogen, and did not augment lactate. Increased activities of hexokinase and phosphofructokinase 2 and permanently elevated levels of fructose 2,6-bisphosphate pointed to enhanced glycolysis with glucose as the main fuel in the prestimulated muscle. Isometric tension of the control muscle decreased rapidly a few minutes after the onset of stimulation. In the prestimulated muscles, tension was almost stable, but amounted to only 30%–40% of the initial tension of the control muscle. In view of the fibre type distribution of rabbit tibialis anterior, these findings suggested that a large fibre fraction of the prestimulated muscle, possibly the glycolytic type IID fibres, did not contract. Therefore, the possibility must be considered that the metabolite pattern of the 24-h-stimulated muscle primarily reflected metabolic activities of the contracting, less fatigable fibres, most likely type IIA and type I fibres. The suggestion that a large fibre fraction did not produce force, in spite of metabolic recovery, points to factors responsible of their refractoriness to low-frequency stimulation other than metabolic exhaustion.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Unitat de Bioquímica, Facultat de Medicina, Universitat de Barcelona, Av. Diagonal 643, E-08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Joan A. Cadefau, Joan Parra & Roser Cussó

  2. Fakultät für Biologie, Universität Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany

    Georg Heine & Dirk Pette

Authors
  1. Joan A. Cadefau
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  2. Joan Parra
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  3. Roser Cussó
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  4. Georg Heine
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  5. Dirk Pette
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Cadefau, J.A., Parra, J., Cussó, R. et al. Responses of fatigable and fatigue-resistant fibres of rabbit muscle to low-frequency stimulation. Pflügers Arch. 424, 529–537 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00374918

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00374918

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