Cardiac triacylglycerol content and lipase activity during recovery from exercise

Female rats swam for 2-h to determine the temporal relationship between triglyceride (TG) repletion and TG lipase activity in the heart during recovery from exercise. Immediately after the exercise, plasma free fatty acids (FFA) had increased from a resting value of 0.44 +/- 0.04 to 0.84 +/- 0.04 mM. Heart TG concentration was reduced 75%, whereas the glycogen level was decreased 34% below control. TG lipase activity was elevated 33% above control activity. One hour after the end of the exercise, lipolytic activity was still 26% above control and did not return to the resting level until the 4th h of recovery. The cardiac TG concentration was back to control levels by the 2nd h after the swim. Plasma FFA concentrations remained elevated during the first 4 h of recovery and were back to the control level by h 8. Cardiac glycogen was "supercompensated" during recovery h 1 and 2 and returned to the preexercise level by h 4. These data indicate that TG is being synthesized in the heart while lipolytic enzyme activity is elevated above control levels. This points out that the rate of TG synthesis is in excess of the hydrolysis. Since plasma FFA concentrations are elevated during periods of augmented TG synthesis, substrate availability, namely plasma FFA, may play a key role in regulating the size of the intracellular TG pool.