Relationships between muscle mitochondrial metabolism and stress-induced corticosterone variations in rats

In order to determine the effect of chronic and acute stress on muscle mitochondrial metabolism, two strains of rats were selected on the basis of their different hypothalamo-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis responses to different stressors [Spontaneous Hypertensive Rats (SHR) and Lewis rats]. For 8 weeks animals were stressed by daily exposure to either a novel environment (SHR: n=16, Lewis: n=16) or forced exercise (SHR: n=16, Lewis: n=16). An unstressed group was left undisturbed (SHR: n=5, Lewis: n=5). Half of the stressed animals (n=32) were submitted to an acute stress (1-h immobilization). The mitochondrial responses of plantaris muscle [cytochrome-c-oxidase (COX), citrate synthase and succinate dehydrogenase activities, the latter two being measured as indices of functional mitochondrial amount] in the presence of different physiological plasma corticosterone (CORT) concentrations were analyzed. The novel environment and forced exercise stress induced different levels of plasma CORT which were negatively correlated with the amount of functional mitochondria in the plantaris muscle. Therefore, a chronic intermittent stress is able to induce an increase in plasma CORT which may be related to deleterious changes in muscle mitochondrial metabolism. Lastly, the acute stress was not associated with a decrease in functional mitochondria but with an increase in COX activity. This suggests that the relationship between CORT and muscle mitochondrial metabolism depends both on the level and duration of endogenous glucocorticoids exposure.