Z. Yan et al., INCREASED MUSCLE CARNITINE PALMITOYLTRANSFERASE-II MESSENGER-RNA AFTER INCREASED CONTRACTILE ACTIVITY, American journal of physiology: endocrinology and metabolism, 31(2), 1995, pp. 277-281
The capacity of skeletal muscle to oxidize fatty acids increases with
endurance training. The oxidation of long-chain fatty acids occurs in
mitochondria and is initiated by a carnitine-dependent transport step
in which three enzymes help fatty acyl groups enter the matrix compart
ment. The purpose of this study was to determine whether pretranslatio
nal regulation of one of these three enzymes, carnitine palmitoyltrans
ferase II (CPT II), as estimated from the level of CPT II mRNA, plays
a role in the doubling of CPT activity in skeletal muscle of rats subj
ected to daily 2-h bouts of running on treadmills (P. A. Mole, L. B. O
scai, and J. O. Holloszy. J. Clin. Invest. 50: 2323-2330, 1971). After
100 min/day of running on motor-driven treadmills for 2 wk, CPT II mR
NA in the plantaris muscle was unchanged when normalized per unit of e
xtracted RNA but was 50% higher (P < 0.05) over sedentary controls whe
n normalized per unit of muscle wet weight. To test whether additional
contractile activity would make CPT II mRNA even higher, continuous i
ndirect electrical stimulation was imposed on the tibialis anterior mu
scles. After 9 days of chronic stimulation, CPT II mRNA was 63, 221, a
nd 137% greater than control (P < 0.001) when normalized to extracted
RNA, muscle wet weight, and whole muscle, respectively, compared with
the muscle in the central rats. These data indicate that pretranslatio
nal regulation of CPT II occurs in response to increased contractile a
ctivity in skeletal muscle.