Abstract.
The recovery of high-energy phosphate levels in single human skeletal muscle fibres following short-term maximal (all-out) exercise was investigated. Three male volunteers exercised maximally for 25 s on an isokinetic cycling ergometer. Muscle biopsy samples from the vastus lateralis were collected at rest, immediately post-exercise and at 1.5 min of recovery. The subjects also performed a second exercise bout 1.5 min after the first, on a separate occasion. Single muscle fibres were dissected, characterized and assigned to one of four groups according to their myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoform content; namely, type I, IIA, IIAx and IIXa (the latter two groups containing either less or more than 50% IIX MyHC). Fibres were analysed for adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP), inosine-5′-monophosphate (IMP), phosphocreatine (PCr) and creatine (Cr) levels. Type I fibres had a lower Cr content than type II fibres (P<0.01). Within type II fibres resting [PCr] increased with increasing MyHC IIX isoform content (r=0.59, P<0.01). Post-exercise [PCr] was very low in all fibre groups (P<0.01 versus rest) while great reductions in ATP were also observed (P<0.01 versus rest), especially in the type II fibre groups. [PCr] at 1.5 min of recovery was still lower compared to rest for all fibre groups (P<0.01) especially in the IIAx and IIXa fibres.
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Received after revision: 17 January 2001
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An erratum to this article is available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s004240100600.
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Karatzaferi, C., de Haan, A., Ferguson, R. et al. Phosphocreatine and ATP content in human single muscle fibres before and after maximum dynamic exercise. Pflügers Arch - Eur J Physiol 442, 467–474 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1007/s004240100552
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s004240100552