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First published online November 2, 2007
Journal of Experimental Biology 210, 4016-4023 (2007)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2007
doi: 10.1242/jeb.007708

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Endurance swimming activates trout lipoprotein lipase: plasma lipids as a fuel for muscle

Leonardo Magnoni and Jean-Michel Weber^*

Biology Department, University of Ottawa, 30 Marie Curie, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5, Canada

^* Author for correspondence (e-mail: jmweber{at}uottawa.ca)

Accepted 3 September 2007

Fish endurance swimming is primarily powered by lipids supplied to red muscle by the circulation, but the mechanism of delivery remains unknown. By analogy to mammals, previous studies have focused on non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA bound to albumin), but lipoproteins have not been considered as an energy shuttle to working muscles. The effects of exercise on fish lipoprotein lipase (LPL) have never been investigated. We hypothesized that LPL and circulating lipoproteins would be modified by prolonged swimming. Because LPL is naturally bound to the endothelium, we have used heparin to release the enzyme in the circulation and to characterize reserve capacity for lipoprotein catabolism. The effects of exercise (4 days at 1.5 body lengths s^–1 in a swim tunnel) were measured for red muscle LPL, post-heparin plasma LPL, and lipoprotein concentration/composition. Red muscle LPL activity increased from 18±5 (rest) to 49± 9 nmol fatty acids min^–1 g^–1 (swimming). In resting fish, heparin administration caused a 27-fold increase in plasma LPL activity that reached a maximum of 1.32± 0.67 µmol fatty acids min^–1 ml^–1 plasma. This heparin-induced response of plasma LPL was not different between resting controls and exercised fish. Heparin or prolonged swimming had no effect on the concentration/composition of lipoproteins that contain 92% of the energy in total plasma lipids. We conclude that (1) red muscle LPL is strongly activated by endurance swimming, (2) rainbow trout have a high reserve capacity for hydrolyzing lipoproteins, and (3) future studies should aim to measure lipoprotein flux because their concentration does not reflect changes in flux. These novel characteristics of fish LPL imply that lipoproteins are used as a metabolic shuttle between fat reserves and working muscles, a strategy exploiting an abundant source of energy in rainbow trout.

Key words: sustained swimming, aerobic exercise, fish metabolism, lipoproteins, lipolysis, red muscle, heparin, rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss

This article has been cited by other articles:

				L. Magnoni, E. Vaillancourt, and J.-M. Weber In vivo regulation of rainbow trout lipolysis by catecholamines J. Exp. Biol., August 1, 2008; 211(15): 2460 - 2466. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				L. Magnoni, E. Vaillancourt, and J.-M. Weber High resting triacylglycerol turnover of rainbow trout exceeds the energy requirements of endurance swimming Am J Physiol Regulatory Integrative Comp Physiol, July 1, 2008; 295(1): R309 - R315. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]