Summary
The effects were investigated of high intensity short duration exercise and anabolic steroid treatment on the medial gastrocnemius muscle of female rats. Twelve rats were divided equally into four groups, exercise with and without steroid administration and sedentary with and without steroid administration. Animals were made to swim for 5 weeks, 6 days·week−1. Muscle fibres were classified as slow-twitch (ST), fast-twitch oxidative glycolytic (FOG) and fast-twitch glycolytic (FG). Muscle fibre size was measured as the equivalent circle diameter. Exercise (P<0.001) and steroid (P<0.05) treatments alone, significantly elevated FOG and decreased FG fibre proportions. Overall proportions of fast-twitch and ST muscle fibres did not vary with any of the treatments. Significant differences in the proportion of muscle fibres were found to exist between different areas within the gastrocnemius muscle (P<0.05). Exercise and steroid treatments alone did not alter muscle fibre diameters. Combined exercise and steroid treatments did significantly increase ST fibre diameters (P<0.05). Exercise only treatment resulted in significant increases in the number of capillaries surrounding ST fibre (P<0.05) and FOG fibre (P<0.01) types. In conclusion the main finding of this study indicated that anabolic steroids in conjunction with high intensity swimming instigated ST fibre hypertrophy. Exercise and steroid only treatments significantly elevated FOG fibre proportions while FG fibre proportions diminished. Exercise only treatment resulted in significant increases in the number of capillaries surrounding both ST and FOG fibre types.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adolfsson J (1986) The time dependence of training-induced increase in skeletal muscle capillarization and the spatial capillary to fibre relationship in normal and neovascularized skeletal muscle of rats. Acta Physiol Scand 128:259–266
Alen M, Hakkinen K, Komi PV (1984) Changes in neuromuscular performance and muscle fiber characteristics of elite power athletes self-administering androgenic and anabolic steroids. Acta Physiol Scand 122:535–544
Andersen P (1975) Capillary density in skeletal muscle of man. Acta Physiol Scand 95:203–205
Andersen P, Henriksson J (1977) Capillary of the quadriceps femoris of man: adaptive response to exercise. J Physiol 270:677–690
Ariel G, Saville W (1970) Anabolic steroids: the physiological effects of placebos. Med Sci Sports 4:124–126
Barnard JP, Edgerton VR, Peter JB (1970) Effect of exercise on skeletal muscle I. Biochemical and histochemical properties. J Appl Physiol 28:762–770
Brasseur JE, Melvin JL, Curtis RL (1981) Fiber type zoning in normal mouse muscle. J EEG Clin Neurophysiol, p 571
Brasseur JE, Curtis RL, Melvin JL (1983) Organization of zones and fiber type architecture within the medial gastrocnemius muscle of Mus musculus. Muscle Nerve 6:525–530
Brasseur JE, Curtis RL, Mellender JW, Rimm AA, Melvin JL, Sulaiman AR (1987) Systematic distribution of muscle fiber types in the medial gastrocnemius of the laboratory mouse: a morphometric analysis. Anat Rec 218:396–401
Breuer CB, Florini JR (1965) Amino acid incorporation into protein by cell free systems from rat skeletal muscle. Effects of animal age, androgens and anabolic agents on activity of muscle ribosomes. Biochemistry 4:1544–1550
Brodal P, Ingjer I, Hermansen L (1977) Capillary supply of skeletal muscle fibres in untrained and endurance trained men. Am J Physiol 232:H705–712
Brooke MH, Kaiser KK (1970) Muscle fiber types: how many and what kind? Arch Neurol 23:369–379
Dudley GA, Abraham WM, Terjung RL (1982) Influence of exercise intensity and duration on biochemical adaptations in skeletal muscle. J Appl Physiol 53:844–850
Egginton S (1987) Effects of an anabolic hormone on striated muscle growth and performance. Pflügers Arch 410:349–355
Exner GU, Staudte HW, Petee D (1973a) Isometric training of rats — effects upon fast and slow muscle and modification by an anabolic hormone (nandrolone decanoate) I. Female rats. Pflügers Arch 345:1–14
Exner GU, Staudte HW, Petee D (1973b) Isometric training of rats — effects upon fast and slow muscle and modification by an anabolic hormone (nandrolone decanoate) II. Male rats. Pflügers Arch 345:15–22
Fahley TD, Brown CH (1972) The effects of an anabolic steroid on the strength, body composition, and endurance of college males when accompanied by a weight training course. Med Sci Sports 5:272–276
Faulkner JA, Maxwell LC, Lieberman DA (1972) Histochemical characteristics of muscle fibers from trained and detrained guinea pigs. Am J Physiol 222:836–840
Freed DLJ, Banks AJ, Longson D, Burley DM (1975) Anabolic steroids in athletes: cross over double-blind trial on weightlifters. BMJ 2:471–473
Guth L, Samaha FJ (1969) Qualitative differences between actomyosin ATPase of slow and fast mammalian muscle. Exp Neurol 25:138–152
Gutmann E, Hanzlikova V, Lojda Z (1970) Effect of androgens on histochemical fibre type. Differentiation in the temporal muscle of the guinea pig. Histochemie 24:287–291
Hickson RC, Heusner WW, Van Huss WD, Taylor JF, Carrow RE (1976) Effects of an anabolic steroid and sprint training on selected histochemical and morphological observations in skeletal muscle types. Eur J Appl Physiol 35:251–259
Johnson LC, O'Shea JP (1969) Anabolic steroids: effects on strength development. Science 164:957–959
Kuhn FE, Max SR (1985) Testosterone and muscle hypertrophy in female rats. J Appl Physiol 59:24–27
Lamb DR (1984) Anabolic steroids in athletics: how well do they work and how dangerous are they? Am J Sports Med 12:31–38
Lindinger MI, Heigenhauser GJF, Spriet LL (1987) Effects of intense swimming and tetanic electrical stimulation on skeletal muscle ions and metabolites. J Appl Physiol 63:2331–2339
Luginbuhl AJ, Dudley GA, Staron RS (1984) Fiber type changes in rat skeletal muscle after intense interval training. Histochemistry 81:55–58
Manning LA, Shorey CD (1987) Variability of fiber type proportions in the rat gastrocnemius muscle. J Anat 155:255–261
Mathews DK, Fox EL (1976) Interval training and other conditioning methods. In: Mathews DK, Fox EL (eds) The physiological basis of physical education and athletes. Saunders, pp 239–267
Novikoff AB, Shin W, Drucker J (1961) Mitochondrial localization of oxidative enzymes: staining results with tetrazolium salts. J Biophys Biochem Cytol 9:47–61
Padykula H, Herman E (1955) The specificity of the histochemical method for adenosine triphosphatase. J Histochem Cytochem 3:170–195
Plyley MJ, Groom AC (1975) Geometrical distribution of capillaries in mammalian striated muscle. Am J Physiol 228:1376–1383
Rogozkin V (1979) Metabolic effects of anabolic steroids on skeletal muscle. Med Sci Sports 11:160–163
Ryan AJ (1981) Anabolic steroids are fool's gold. Fed Proc 40:2682–2688
Shorey CD, Manning LA, Everitt AV (1988) Morphometrical analysis of skeletal muscle fibre ageing and effect of hypophysectomy and food restriction in the rat. Gerontology 34:97–109
Stone MH, Lipner H (1978) Responses to intensive training and methandrostenolone administration. I. Contractile and performance variables. Pflügers Arch 375:141–146
Taylor AW, Secord DC, Murray P (1973) Rat muscle and organ weights after castrations: the effects of anabolic steroids and exercise. Endokrinologie 61:372–378
Tunell GL, Hart MN (1977) Simultaneous determination of skeletal muscle fiber, types I, IIA and IIB by histochemistry. Arch Neurol 34:171–173
Wilson JD (1988) Androgen abuse by athletes. Endocr Rev 9:950–954
Wright JE (1980) Anabolic steroids and athletes. Exerc Sport Rev 8:149–202
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Dimauro, J., Balnave, R.J. & Shorey, C.D. Effects of anabolic steroids and high intensity exercise on rat skeletal muscle fibres and capillarization. Europ. J. Appl. Physiol. 64, 204–212 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00626282
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00626282