Calorie restriction (CR; ∼60%-65% of ad libitum consumption) can enhance insulin-stimulated glucose uptake (ISGU) in predominantly slow-twitch skeletal muscles (e.g., soleus) by an incompletely understood mechanism. We used an Akt inhibitor (MK-2206) to eliminate CR's effect on insulin-stimulated Akt2 phosphorylation in isolated rat soleus muscles. We found long-term CR-enhanced ISGU was abolis...

PURPOSE To examine the changes of taurine concentrations in blood and skeletal muscles after transient exercise. METHODS Rats were placed on a treadmill set at 25 m.min-1. The animals were divided into four groups: control (no exercise) and exercise groups 1, 2, and 3. The exercise duration for groups 1, 2, and 3 was 30, 60, and 100 +/- 12.5 min (to exhaustion: mean +/- SD), respectively. We ...

Previous studies suggest that fast-twitch skeletal muscle overloaded by surgical removal of synergists contains a greater percent of slow-twitch fibers than normal muscle. Therefore we examined subcellular systems known to represent biochemical properties of slow-twitch skeletal muscle by measuring myosin ATPase, Ca2+ regulation of myofibril ATPase, Ca2+ uptake of sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), a...

In the slow-wave (SW) state, the vast majority of cortical neurons exhibit mostly synchronized oscillatory activity. In this study, we examined the right-left hemispheric difference in slow-wave timings in urethane-anesthetized mice. We found that interhemispheric cross-correlograms of local field potentials (LFPs) peaked asymmetrically. Double in vivo whole-cell patch-clamp recordings also rev...

Examination by scanning electron microscopy revealed differences between neuromuscular junctions in the muscle fibers of the zebra finch (bird) and rat. The neuromuscular junctions between the anterior and posterior latissimus dorsi muscles of the zebra finch were compared. The junctions of the former, exclusively slow tonic fibers, were small and numerous along the long axis of a single muscle...

In small mammals, muscles with shorter twitch contraction times and a predominance of fast-twitch, type II fibers exhibit greater posttetanic twitch force potentiation than muscles with longer twitch contraction times and a predominance of slow-twitch, type I fibers. In humans, the correlation between potentiation and fiber-type distribution has not been found consistently. In the present study...

The way the pH falls post-slaughter has an impact on meat quality. Pork longissimus muscles (n=48) were sorted in fast- (FG) (n=15) and normal glycolysing (NG) (n=33) muscles according to the post-slaughter pH 45 min values (FG<6.0; NG>6.0). FG muscles (5.84±0.04) compared with NG muscles (6.27±0.04) were accompanied with higher temperature, electrical conductivity, lightness and yellowness, an...

Calorie restriction (CR) (consuming ~60% of ad libitum, AL, intake) improves whole body insulin sensitivity and enhances insulin-stimulated glucose uptake by isolated skeletal muscles. However, little is known about CR-effects on in vivo glucose uptake and insulin signaling in muscle. Accordingly, 9-month-old male AL and CR (initiated when 3-months-old) Fischer 344 x Brown Norway rats were stud...

We utilized quantitative freeze-fracture electron microscopy to study the plasticity of orthogonal clusters of 60-A particles (the “square array”) found in the sarcolemma of fast-twitch muscle. The membrane macromolecular composition of normally slow-twitch rat soleus muscle was examined 1 year after surgical reinnervation by the nerve from fast-twitch extensor digitorum longus muscles. The iso...