Mechanism of sympathetic activation during prolonged physical exercise in dogs

Abstract

It seems likely that depletion of body carbohydrates may account for the rise in the sympathetic activity during prolonged exercise, since glucose given during or before exercise reduces the increase in plasma catecholamines. The aim of the present study was to find out whether the increase in plasma noradrenaline (NA) in response to exercise can be reduced by 1. increasing of the amount of carbohydrate available for metabolism without producing hyperinsulinemia and 2. by inhibition of afferent activity from hepatic glucoreceptors. The study was performed on dogs which exercised whilst receiving either the intravenous fructose infusion (2.2 mmol/min) or a slow glucose infusion (0.25 mmol/min) which was given either via the portal or a peripheral vein. Fructose infusion reduced the muscle glycogen depletion during exercise and reduced the increase in plasma NA and glycerol concentrations without altering the blood glucose or insulin levels. The exercise-induced increases in plasma NA and gycerol concentrations were significantly smaller with intraportal than with peripheral glucose infusion but there were no differences between these two cases in the concentration of glucose in the systemic circulation. These findings indicate that the reduction of the plasma NA response to physical effort under conditions of increased carbohydrate availability cannot be attributed to the inhibitory effect of insulin on sympathetic activity and provide evidence for the participation of hepatic glucoreceptors in the control of the sympathetic activity during exercise.