Local depletion of glycogen with supra-maximal exercise in human skeletal muscle fibres

Skeletal muscle glycogen is heterogeneous distributed in three separated compartments (intramyofibrillar, intermyofibrillar and subsarcolemmal). Although only constituting 4-15% of the total glycogen volume, the availability of intramyofibrillar glycogen has been shown to be of particular importance to muscle function. The present study was designed to investigate the depletion of these three sub-cellular glycogen compartments during repeated supra-maximal exercise in elite athletes. Ten elite cross-country skiers (age: 25 +/- 4 yrs., VO2 max : 65 +/- 4 ml kg-1 min-1 , mean +/- SD) performed four approximately 4-minute supra-maximal sprint time trials (STT 1-4) with 45 min recovery. The sub-cellular glycogen volumes in m. triceps brachii were quantified from electron microscopy images before and after both STT 1 and STT 4. During STT 1, the depletion of intramyofibrillar glycogen was higher in type I fibres (-52% [-89:-15%]) than type 2 fibres (-15% [-52:22%]) (P = 0.02), while the depletion of intermyofibrillar glycogen (main effect: -19% [-33:0], P = 0.006) and subsarcolemmal glycogen (main effect: -35% [-66:0%], P = 0.03) was similar between fibre types. In contrast, only intermyofibrillar glycogen volume was significantly reduced during STT 4, in both fibre types (main effect: -31% [-50:-11%], P = 0.002). Furthermore, for each of the sub-cellular compartments, the depletion of glycogen during STT 1 was associated with the volumes of glycogen before STT 1. In conclusion, the depletion of spatially distinct glycogen compartments differs during supra-maximal exercise. Furthermore, the depletion changes with repeated exercise and is fibre type-dependent.