Reduced non-bicarbonate skeletal muscle buffering capacity in mice with the mini-muscle phenotype

Muscle pH decreases during exercise, which may impair function. Endurance training typically reduces muscle buffering capacity as a result of changes in fiber-type composition, but existing comparisons of species that vary in activity level are ambiguous. We hypothesized that high-runner (HR) lines of mice from an experiment that breeds mice for voluntary wheel running would have altered muscle buffering capacity as compared with their non-selected control counterparts. We also expected that 6 days of wheel access, as used in the selection protocol, would reduce buffering capacity, especially for HR mice. Finally, we expected a subset of HR mice with the 'mini-muscle' phenotype to have relatively low buffering capacity as a result of fewer type IIb fibers. We tested non-bicarbonate buffering capacity of thigh muscles. Only HR mice expressing the mini-muscle phenotype had significantly reduced buffering capacity, females had lower buffering capacity than males, and wheel access had no significant effect.