Tolerance of unacclimated and cold-acclimated rats to exercise in th cold: serum, red and white muscle enzymes, and histological changes.

Abstract

Unacclimated and cold-acclimated rats were exercised for 3 h, 5 h, or 9 h in a cold room maintained at 1.7 °C. The cold-acclimated rats tolerated these exercise periods, but two-thirds of the unacclimated rats died during 9 h exercise. In red and white muscle the intermediate exercise interval (5 h) induced significantly greater increases in the activities in muscle of creatinephosphokinase and glycolytic enzymes of unacclimated rats, while during 9 h exercise enzyme activity declined in muscles of unacclimated rats and increased in cold-acclimated ones. The rise in serum enzyme activity during exercise was consistently greater in unacclimated than in cold-acclimated rats. Apparently the reduction in exercise tolerance was associated with and may have been in part due to loss of enzyme content and activity in muscles. Collectively, these and other biochemical responses suggested that homeostatic mechanisms had been exhausted in the rats dually stressed by cold exposure and exercise. Except for the activities of aldolase and the ratio of lactic dehydrogenase to alpha-glycerophosphate dehydrogenase, those enzymes associated with "aerobic" function (transaminases) showed the predominant changes in red muscle, and those associated with "anaerobic" function (glycolytic enzymes) the predominant changes in white muscle. The greater responses of the glycolytic enzymes in a predominantly "aerobic" tissue suggest that the biochemical adaptability of red muscle is greater than that of white muscle.