Martine Marcotte

The effect of a 20-week endurance training program on adipose-tissue morphology and lipolysis in men and women

In order to assess the effect of endurance training on adipose-tissue morphology and lipolysis, 22 adult subjects (11 men and 11 women) took part in a 20-week ergocycle training program, four to five days a week, 40 minutes a day, at 80% of their maximal heart rate. Before and after training, they were submitted to an adipose-tissue biopsy in the suprailiac region. Fat cell weight (FCW), and lipolytic activity were determined on isolated fat cells. For the whole sample, training significantly reduced FCW (pre: 0.40 +/- 0.13 (mean +/- SD) versus post: 0.36 +/- 0.13 micrograms; P less than 0.05), percentage of fat (pre: 22.0 +/- 8.3 versus post: 19.7 +/- 8.1%; P less than 0.05), and increased adipocyte epinephrine maximal stimulated lipolysis (ESL) (pre: 1.08 +/- 0.49 versus post: 1.69 +/- 0.67 mumol glycerol/30 min/10(6) cells; P less than 0.001). No changes were observed in fat cell number. In women, however, training induced no changes in the fatness indicators (% fat, sum of skinfolds, FCW). The exercise program significantly lowered the adiposity of men (% fat: P less than 0.001; sum of skinfolds: P less than 0.01; FCW: P less than 0.05). In both sexes, a significant increase in ESL was observed after training. ESL of men, however, responded better than that of women to training (ESL of women: 1.36 +/- 0.67 versus ESL of men: 2.02 +/- 0.50 mumol glycerol/30 min/10(6) cells; P less than 0.05), with increases over pre-training values of 46% and 66% in women and men, respectively.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)

Human skeletal muscle fiber type alteration with high-intensity intermittent training

SummaryThe response of muscle fiber type proportions and fiber areas to 15 weeks of strenuous high-intensity intermittent training was investigated in twenty-four carefully ascertained sedentary (14 women and 10 men) and 10 control (4 women and 6 men) subjects. The supervised training program consisted mainly of series of supramaximal exercise lasting 15 s to 90 s on a cycle ergometer. Proportions of muscle fiber type and areas of the fibers were determined from a biopsy of the vastus lateralis before and after the training program. No significant change was observed for any of the histochemical charactertics in the control group. Training significantly increased the proportion of type I and decreased type IIb fibers, the proportion of type IIa remained unchanged. Areas of type I and IIb fibers increased significantly with training. These results suggest that high-intensity intermittent training in humans may alter the proportion of type I and the area of type I and IIb fibers and in consequence that fiber type composition in human vastus lateralis muscle is not determined solely by genetic factors.

Effects of two high-intensity intermittent training programs interspaced by detraining on human skeletal muscle and performance

SummaryThe purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of repeated high-intensity intermittent training programs interspaced by detraining on human skeletal muscle and performances. First, nineteen subjects were submitted to a 15-week cycle ergometer training program which involved both continuous and high-intensity interval work patterns. Among these 19 subjects, six participated in a second 15-week training program after 7 weeks of detraining. Subjects were tested before and after each training program for maximal aerobic power and maximal short-term ergocycle performances of 10 and 90 s. Muscle biopsy from the vastus lateralis before and after both training programs served for the determination of creatine kinase (CK), hexokinase, phosphofructokinase (PFK), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), malate dehydrogenase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase (HADH) and oxoglutarate dehydrogenase (OGDH) activities. The first training program induced significant increases in all performances and enzyme activities but not in CK. Seven weeks of detraining provoked significant decreases in maximal aerobic power and maximal 90 s ergocycle performance. While the interruption of training had no effect on glycolytic enzyme markers (PFK and LDH), oxidative enzyme activities (HADH and OGDH) declined. These results suggest that a fairly long interruption in training has negligeable effects on glycolytic enzymes while a persistent training stimulus is required to maintain high oxidative enzyme levels in human skeletal muscle. The degree of adaptation observed after the second training program confirms that the magnitude of the adaptive response to exercise-training is limited.

Effects of aerobic training on fat distribution in male subjects.

To investigate the effects of aerobic training on adipose tissue morphology and fat distribution, several indicators of body fatness (percent body fat, seven subcutaneous skinfolds, fat cell weight) were assessed in 13 sedentary male subjects (SS) submitted to a 20-wk aerobic training program and in 20 male long-distance runners (LDR). The LDR subjects had a mean +/- SD VO2max of 65.9 +/- 6.5 ml . min-1 . kg-1 and averaged 120 km . wk-1. Training increased the VO2max values of the SS group significantly (pre: 41.9 +/- 7.0 vs post: 53.4 +/- 6.4 ml . kg-1 . min-1; P less than 0.001) and decreased significantly percent body fat (P less than 0.01), sum of skinfolds (P less than 0.01), and fat cell weight (P less than 0.05). Trunk skinfolds were more altered by training than extremity skinfolds, with reductions of 22 and 12.5%, respectively. Significant correlations were found between fat cell weight and percent body fat in SS before and after training (r = 0.75; P less than 0.01), while no significant relationship was noted in the LDR group. Moreover, using the sum of skinfolds divided by percent fat or by fat mass to reflect the proportion of subcutaneous fat to total fat, the LDR subjects exhibited less subcutaneous fat than the SS group (P less than 0.01) and training did not alter these ratios in the SS group. These results suggest that 20 wk of aerobic training can alter body fatness in men but that the induced fat loss does not seem to deplete preferentially subcutaneous fat.

Muscle genetic variants and relationship with performance and trainability.

Samples were obtained in a maximum of 295 males and females from the vastus lateralis muscle and proteins fractionated by thin-layer isoelectric focusing. Muscle creatine kinase (CKM) and adenylate kinase (myokinase) (AK1M) were studied for the presence of variants. Six individuals exhibited a CKM variant described here for the first time, for a frequency of the variant gene of 1%. For AK1M, 21 individuals were heterozygotes for an inherited variant protein, an allele frequency of 3.5%. CKM (N = 5) and AK1M (N = 18) variant individuals were paired with control subjects who had the common CKM or AK1M muscle phenotype and compared for several performance indicators. There was no significant difference between the CKM and AK1M common and variant phenotypes for any of the performance measurements. However, the CKM variant subjects tended to be more effective than controls in a 90-min performance test (by about 22%) and had less percent decline over 60 s in force generation (by about 26%). In a subsequent experiment, a few variant subjects could be compared to controls in terms of response to exercise training. Although trends were observed, the CKM and AK1M variant subjects had a response to training generally comparable to that of the nonvariant individuals. While human variation in performance and trainability cannot be accounted for by the genetic polymorphism of the two kinase enzymes, the trends in the data suggest that allelic variation at these two gene loci may be of some functional significance.

Effects of exercise-training and detraining on fat cell lipolysis in men and women

SummaryThe effects of training and detraining on adipose tissue lipolysis were studied in 19 healthy subjects (7 women and 12 men) who were submitted to a 20-week aerobic training program. Thereafter, subjects refrained from exercise for a period of 50 days. Suprailiac fat biopsies were performed before training, after training, and at the end of the detraining period. Mean fat cell diameter and epinephrine stimulated lipolysis (ESL) were assessed on collagenase isolated fat cells. Body density through underwater weighing and skinfolds at seven different sites were also obtained. Training significantly increased ESL (P<0.05) in men but not in women. However, ESL values in men returned to pretraining values after the exercise restriction period. No significant changes in women lipolysis were observed under any conditions. Changes in lipolysis were not correlated with changes in body fatness. However, a significant correlation was observed between the increase in ESL produced by training and the subsequent decrease caused by detraining (r=−0.53;P<0.05). The present results suggest that lipolysis in fat cells from the female subjects seems to be insensitive to changes in energy expenditure. Moreover, the present study demonstrates that there are high and low responders in adipocytes ESL to variations in habitual energy expenditure.

Acute effects of endurance exercise on human adipose tissue metabolism

In order to study the acute effects of exercise on adipose tissue metabolism, 27 sedentary male subjects, 18 to 27 years of age, performed a prolonged aerobic exercise test. Biopsies of adipose tissue were obtained from the suprailiac fat depot before and immediately after a 90-minute period of exercise on ergocycle at an average intensity of 88% of maximal heart rate. Fat cells, isolated by collagenase digestion, were measured for their glucose conversion into triglycerides and for lipolytic activity. Adipose tissue lipoprotein lipase activity released by heparin was also determined. Mean basal and insulin-stimulated glucose conversion into triglycerides decreased significantly with exercise (P less than .05) while adipose tissue lipoprotein lipase activity increased (P less than .01). Fat cell lipolysis increased during exercise only for its epinephrine-stimulated values (P less than .05). The total amount of work performed during the test was correlated only with changes in lipoprotein lipase activity (r = .42, P less than .05). Finally, the changes induced by exercise in lipoprotein lipase activity (r = .37, P less than .05) and insulin-stimulated glucose conversion into triglycerides (r = .61, P less than .01) were positively correlated with fat cell weight. These results indicate that adipose tissue metabolic activities are selectively influenced by endurance exercise. They also suggest that these metabolic changes are not closely coupled with the amount of work performed in a prolonged exercise bout.

Heredity and changes in body composition and adipose tissue metabolism after short-term exercise-training

SummaryThe purpose of the experiment was to investigate the genotype dependency of body composition and adipose tissue metabolism following short-term exercise-training. Six pairs of male, sedentary monozygotic twins took part in a 22 day ergocycle training program at 58%

Absence of charge variants in human skeletal muscle enzymes of the glycolytic pathway

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