Effect of endurance training on myocardial myosin adenosine triphosphatase activity of the dog.

Endurance exercise training has been found to enhance the functional capacity of the myocardium in several animal models. The sub-cellular phenomena accompanying the augmented function are yet to be explained. The present study sought to determine if the myosin ATPase activity of cardiac muscle increased as a result of endurance conditioning. Five beagles trained by running on a motor driven treadmill (T) and five control (NT) animals were studied. Follwoing 10 weeks of training the T group had a significantly (P less than .05) lower heart rate than the NT while performing the same submaximal exercise and the gastrocnemius cytochrome oxidase activity was significantly greater (P less than .005) in the T than in the NT. These two measurements established that the exercised animals were physically trained. Myosin was isolated from the left ventricular myocardium and activated in a medium containing K-EDTA. No significant (P less than .05) difference in maximum myosin ATPase activity was observed between the NT and T groups in cardiac muscle. It was concluded that cardiac muscle myosin ATPase activity was not affected by 10 weeks of endurance conditioning induced by treadmill running in dogs.