Summary
The soleus, reetus femoris, and gastrocnemius muscles of young rats trained isometrically for 4 weeks were studied by light and electron microscopy.—The percentage of fast-twitch oxidative muscle fibers decreased at the cost of the fast-twitch glycolytic fibers in the rectus femoris muscle. The percentages of the slow-twitch oxidative fibers did not change significantly in any of the muscles studied. The changes in the areas of the muscle fibers were specific for the muscle and the fiber type and indicate geometrical rearrangements of the fibers in the trained muscles. The Z and M lines were broader in the soleus (containing about 85% slow-twitch oxidative fibers) than in the rectus femoris muscle (containing about 90% fast-twitch glycolytic fibers), while the sarcomere length and the pseudo-H zone were similar. The length of the myosin filaments appeared to be slightly shorter in the fast rectus femoris than in the slow soleus muscle.—The hypothesis on the temporal progress of muscle adaptation to training (Müller, 1974) was substantiated. Correlations between biochemical (Exner et al., 1973a) and histochemical parameters measuring the oxidative capacity were preserved during adaptation to training. The comparison of the histochemical results with the physiological data on similar animals (Exner et al., 1973a) suggests a complex relationship between the contraction time and the percentage of fast-twitch muscle fibers.
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The author is indebted to Drs. W. Vogell and D. Pette for support and critical discussions of this work, to Drs. G. U. Exner, D. Pette, B. Ramirez, and H. W. Staudte for kindly providing the animals from their training program and for the preparation of the muscles, to Miss R. Hildebrand, Mr. J. Luger, and Miss B. Renn for skilful technical assistance, and to Dr. L. Murdock for his aid in editing the manuscript.—This study was supported by a grant of Deutscher Sportbund.
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Müller, W. Isometric training of young rats — Effects upon hind limb muscles. Cell Tissue Res. 161, 225–237 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00220371
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00220371