The effect of high-intensity exhaustive exercise studied in isolated mitochondria from human skeletal muscle.

Six young men performed five 1-min bicycle exercise bouts to exhaustion. Muscle lactate increased to congruent with 114 mmol x kg(-1) dwt and pH decreased to congruent with 6.6. Mitochondria were prepared from a needle biopsy sample taken from m. vastus lateralis immediately after the last exercise bout. No significant effect of exhaustion on the proton permeability and amount of cytochromes c and aa3 in isolated mitochondria was detected. The activities of the following enzymes and systems were not altered either: citrate synthase, succinate dehydrogenase, cytochrome oxidase, succinate + glutamate respiration, malate + glutamate respiration, the respiratory chain, and the reactions involved in ATP synthesis. Thus, the mitochondria did not appear globally altered upon exhaustion. However, the following NAD-linked activities were significantly lowered: pyruvate dehydrogenase, alpha-ketoglutarate dehydrogenase, glutamate dehydrogenase and fatty acid beta-oxidation. The activities of alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase and exo-NADH oxidase, enzymes that might catalyze the oxidation of sarcoplasmic NADH, were increased. These changes may be due to the action of reactive oxygen species, protons and Ca2+. Transient opening of the permeability transition pore may also be involved. Some effects may have been reversed during isolation of the mitochondria and the changes in mitochondrial function in situ upon exhaustion may have been more extensive than observed.