Glycosylation pattern and enzyme activities in atrophic, angulated skeletal muscle fibres from ageing rats.

In this study enzyme activities and lectin binding patterns in skeletal muscle from very old rats were investigated in order to evaluate changes in enzyme activity or carbohydrate expression in senile muscle. Activities for adenosine triphosphatase (ATPase), succinic dehydrogenase, non-specific esterase and the binding pattern for 31 lectins were investigated in the soleus muscles from very old (36 months) and young (3 months) rats. In ageing muscles atrophic, angulated muscle fibres are frequent. In cryostat sections these fibres were mostly but not always type II defined by the myosin ATPase reaction; few showed a strong esterase activity. Some showed strong activity for succinic dehydrogenase while others were weakly reacting. A number of lectins strongly bound to the sarcoplasm in angulated fibres while the binding to normal fibres in both old and young rat muscle was much weaker or even absent. Preferential binding to the ageing, angulated fibres was seen with Aleuria aurentia, Galantus nivalis, Caragana abborecens, Triticum vulgaris, Maackia amurensis, Sambucus nigra, Phaseolus vulgaris erythroagglutinin, and Phaseolus coccineus. Samples of homogenized and centrifuged muscles were run by electrophoresis and the gels blotted to nitrocellulose paper. Subsequent lectin staining of the blots detected that two glycoproteins with molecular weights around 25,000 and 21,000 daltons were present in old muscle, but not in young. Aberrant or elevated expression of sarcoplasmic glycoconjugates is involved in ageing muscle atrophy.