Mitochondrial size and shape in equine skeletal muscle: a three-dimensional reconstruction study

Individual mitochondria were reconstructed from ultrathin serial sections of selected muscle fibers in the M. semitendinosus of a horse, over a length of nearly two sarcomeres. Mitochondria were found to be highly variable, with size and complexity of single mitochondria increasing with the fractional part of a fiber occupied by mitochondria. In fibers with a mitochondrial volume density of less than 4%, corresponding to the mitochondrial content of fast-twitch glycolytic fibers, mitochondria were generally rather simple cylindrical shapes, oriented parallel to the myofibrils. In fibers with a mitochondrial volume density of more than 7%, corresponding to the mitochondrial content of slow-oxidative or fast-oxidative glycolytic fibers, mitochondria were generally cylindrical at the A-band and Z-plate level of the muscle sarcomeres. However, these mitochondria often had transverse extensions or interconnections that occurred at the I-band level. Volumes of individual mitochondria ranged from as small as a few thousandths of a micron3 up to several micron3 for the incompletely reconstructed portions of the largest mitochondria. Mitochondrial profiles that one would classify from single sections as subsarcolemmal were found to interconnect with other profiles deeper within the fiber. This suggests that it is unlikely that subsarcolemmal and interfibrillar mitochondria are two structurally distinct populations. However, we found no evidence of a reticulum completely interlinking all mitochondrial material in a muscle fiber.