Abstract
Skeletal muscle demonstrates a remarkable plasticity, adapting to a variety of external stimuli (Booth and Thomason 1991; Chibalin et al. 2000; Hawley 2002; Fluck and Hoppeler 2003), including habitual level of contractile activity (e.g., endurance exercise training), loading state (e.g., resistance exercise training), substrate availability (e.g., macronutrient supply), and the prevailing environmental conditions (e.g., thermal stress). This phenomenon of plasticity is common to all vertebrates (Schiaffino and Reggiani 1996). However, there exists a large variation in the magnitude of adaptability among species, and between individuals within a species. Such variability partly explains the marked differences in aspects of physical performance, such as endurance or strength, between individuals, as well as the relationship of skeletal muscle fiber type composition to certain chronic disease states, including obesity and insulin resistance.
Highlights
In most mammals, skeletal muscle comprises about 55% of individual body mass and plays vital roles in locomotion, heat production during periods of cold stress, and overall metabolism (Figure 1)
Hawley is with the Exercise Metabolism Group, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences at RMIT University in Bundoora, Australia
Working muscles), energy is produced via the glycolytic pathway, which results in lactate accumulation and in turn limits anaerobic exercise
Summary
Much of our early understanding of the plasticity of skeletal muscle has been derived from studies undertaken by exercise physiologists (e.g., Holloszy 1967). With the application of surgical techniques to exercise physiology in the late 1960s (Bergstrom and Hultman 1966), it became possible to obtain biopsy samples (~150 mg) of human skeletal muscle, and by means of histological and biochemical analyses, specific morphological, contractile, and metabolic properties were identified. In 1873, the French anatomist Louis Antoine Ranvier had already observed that some muscles of the rabbit were redder in color, and contracted in a slower, more sustained manner, than paler muscles of the same animal These early observations formed the basis of the classical terminology of red and white muscle fibers, which was subsequently found to be related to myoglobin (an iron-containing oxygentransport protein in the red cells of the blood) content (Needham 1926). Under anaerobic conditions (insufficient oxygen supply to the Citation: Zierath JR, Hawley JA (2004) Skeletal muscle fiber type: Influence on contractile and metabolic properties. Hawley is with the Exercise Metabolism Group, School of Medical Sciences, Faculty of Life Sciences at RMIT University in Bundoora, Australia
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