The effect of strenuous aerobic exercise on skeletal muscle myofibrillar proteolysis in humans

Relatively little is known about the dynamics of the skeletal muscle protein pool following aerobic exercise. Myofibrillar protein synthesis has recently been shown to be substantially elevated for 3 days after a strenuous 60 min bout of one-legged aerobic exercise, and this increase was surprisingly equal to or greater than what has been shown numerous times following resistance exercise over the same time course. Because net protein accretion is the sum of protein synthesis and degradation, we sought to directly measure skeletal muscle myofibrillar proteolysis in five healthy young males in response to an identical strenuous 60 min aerobic exercise bout and at the same time points (rest, 6, and 24 h post-exercise and 48 and 72 h post-exercise in a subset of subjects). We measured skeletal muscle myofibrillar proteolysis by monitoring the release of the natural tracer 3-methylhistidine (3MH) from the vastus lateralis muscle into the interstitial space via microdialysis. Skeletal muscle interstitial 3MH concentration was no different (P > 0.05) from rest (5.16 +/- 0.38 nmol/mL) after 6 (5.37 +/- 0.55 nmol/mL), 24 (5.40 +/- 0.26 nmol/mL), 48 (5.50 +/- 0.74 nmol/mL), or 72 h (4.73 +/- 0.28 nmol/mL). These results suggest that proteolysis of the myofibrillar fraction of skeletal muscle is relatively refractory to an intense aerobic exercise stimulus for up to 3 days, despite the large increase in synthesis of this muscle fraction following the same exercise stimulus. The apparent net myofibrillar protein accretion in the hours and days after exercise may occur in order to offset the large elevation in mixed muscle proteolysis that has been shown during similar bouts of intense one-legged aerobic exercise.