Exercise training increases skeletal muscle mitochondrial volume density by enlargement of existing mitochondria and not de novo biogenesis

MitoVD increased with 55 ± 9% (P < 0.001), whereas the number of mitochondrial profiles per area of skeletal muscle remained unchanged following training. Citrate synthase activity (CS) increased (44 ± 12%, P < 0.001); however, there were no functional changes in oxidative phosphorylation capacity (OXPHOS, CI+IIP ) or cytochrome c oxidase (COX) activity. Correlations were found between MitoVD and CS (P = 0.01; r = 0.58), OXPHOS, CI+CIIP (P = 0.01; R = 0.58) and COX (P = 0.02; R = 0.52) before training; after training, a correlation was found between MitoVD and CS activity only (P = 0.04; R = 0.49). Intrinsic respiratory capacities decreased (P < 0.05) with training when respiration was normalized to MitoVD. This was not the case when normalized to CS activity although the percentage change was comparable. CONCLUSIONS: MitoVD was increased by inducing mitochondrial enlargement rather than de novo biogenesis. CS activity may be appropriate to track training-induced changes in MitoVD.