Metabolite changes in individual rat muscle fibers during stimulation.

Rat plantaris and soleus muscles were stimulated intensely in vivo for 1 and 15 min, freeze-clamped, and freeze-dried, and individual fibers were dissected free. Fibers, assigned to four groups on the basis of lactate dehydrogenase and malate dehydrogenase, were each separately analyzed for ATP, P-creatine, glycogen, glucose, glucose-6-phosphate (glucose-6-P), lactate, citrate, and malate. Some fibers were also analyzed for fructose 1,6-phosphate, total adenylate and total creatine. Although each group as a whole showed significant and often large differences in control composition and response to stimulation, individual fibers varied enough to create an almost continuous spectrum of metabolite levels from one extreme to the other. The data suggest that the slowest twitch fibers were the most active in the control state. Stimulation for 1 min caused a small increase in ATP in all groups with a large decrease in P-creatine in "fast white" fibers and a modest decrease in the rest. After 15-min stimulation, fast white fibers had lost 60% of initial ATP and 97% of initial P-creatine, whereas in other fiber types these compounds underwent little further change. Metabolite changes with stimulation were also greatest in fast white fibers. Glucose-6-P rose 15-fold in 1 min, then fell to below control by 15 min when glycogen had been exhausted; lactate rose two to six times more than in other types. Glucose rose in all groups to levels at 15 min, compatible with equilibrium with blood plasma.