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1 Department of Medicine, University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California, 92092-0623A; 2 Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Science, Texas A & M University, College Station, Texas 77845; and 3 Department of Pathology, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, Texas 77555-0588
The objective was to assess the aerobic capacity
of skeletal muscles in pinnipeds. Samples of swimming and nonswimming
muscles were collected from Steller sea lions
(Eumetopias jubatus,
n = 27), Northern fur seals
(Callorhinus ursinus,
n = 5), and harbor seals
(Phoca vitulina,
n = 37) by using a needle biopsy
technique. Samples were either immediately fixed in 2% glutaraldehyde
or frozen in liquid nitrogen. The volume density of mitochondria, myoglobin concentration, citrate synthase activity, and
-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase was determined for all samples. The
swimming muscles of seals had an average total mitochondrial volume
density per volume of fiber of 9.7%. The swimming muscles of sea lions
and fur seals had average mitochondrial volume densities of 6.2 and 8.8%, respectively. These values were 1.7- to 2.0-fold greater than in
the nonswimming muscles. Myoglobin concentration, citrate synthase
activity, and -hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase were 1.1- to 2.3-fold
greater in the swimming vs. nonswimming muscles. The swimming muscles
of pinnipeds appear to be adapted for aerobic lipid metabolism under
the hypoxic conditions that occur during diving.
mitochondria; citrate synthase; -hydroxyacyl-coenzyme A
dehydrogenase; myoglobin
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