Effect of Physical Training on Enzyme Activities of Bones, Tendons and Skeletal Muscles in Mice

Abstract

According to several recent papers the activity of some enzymes of energy yielding metabolic pathways increases by endurance training in muscles, but it is not yet known whether similar changes occur also in connective tissues. Some structural, chemical, physical and metabolic changes, however, appear in connective tissues during adaptation to physical exercise. Physical training produces hypertrophy of e.g. tendon and articular cartilage in young rabbits [6] and increases the tensile strength of tendons and breaking strength of bones in growing mice [7]. The level of physical activity affects the turnover of collagen in long bones and Achilles tendons of mice [4] and also affects the mineral and organic bone turnover in swine [1] suggesting that functional stress partly determines the metabolism of connective tissue in the locomotor system. The present investigation was undertaken to find out the effects of physical training on the activities of some metabolic enzymes in the skeletal muscle, the long bone and the Achilles tendon.