Relationship between exercise-induced muscle damage and enzyme release in rats

The relationship between the amount of exercise-induced muscle damage and the release of creatine kinase (CK), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and lactate dehydrogenase (LD) was studied. Gender differences in enzyme release and histological damage were also studied. Serial pre- and postexercise blood samples were drawn from untrained male and female catheterized Wistar rats that ran 1.5 or 2.5 h on a treadmill (incline 10 degrees). Three days postexercise, muscle damage was quantified morphometrically in five different hindlimb and forearm muscles. The 1.5 and 2.5 h of exercise elicited histological damage only in the soleus muscle. Significant plasma CK, AST, and LD elevations were found immediately postexercise both in male and female rats. However, the enzyme release was significantly greater in males than in females. Part of this could be explained by differences in clearance rates between males and females. No gender difference in amount of histological damage was found. The actual volume of histological muscle damage was significantly less than the calculated muscle damage based on enzyme release. An increase in the exercise duration from 1.5 to 2.5 h resulted in a disproportional increase in both histological muscle damage and muscle enzyme release. From the present study it is concluded that muscle enzyme release is not clearly reflected in histological muscle damage.