title: Muscle fibre type characteristics in endurance trained and untrained individuals.
abstract: The main fibre types of M. vastus lateralis of 10 trained or untrained male individuals (25-35 years) were quantitatively determined by morphological techniques; the fibre types being defined according to the M-band appearance. The volume density of mitochondria ( Vmit ) was higher in endurance-trained muscles. Vmit was higher in Type 1 than in Type 2 fibres, there being no difference between subtypes of Type 2 fibres. The volume density of lipid droplets ( Vli ) showed a wide range of values both with respect to degree of training and between fibre types. Z-band width was not influenced by endurance training, but was considerably larger in Type 1 than in Type 2 fibres. Discriminant analysis showed that 46% of the fibres, preclassified according to the M-band appearance, would have been correctly allocated on basis of the Vmit . The corresponding value for lipid droplets was 42% and for the Z-band width, 62%. It is concluded that Vmit is not a satisfactory criterion for discriminating between fibre types, especially between Type 2A and Type 2B in trained subjects. The study also shows that endurance training reduces the relative importance of individual-dependent factors in comparison with muscle fibre properties when concerning Vmit .
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009132:Muscles / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D010806:Physical Education and Training; D010807:Physical Endurance