[Adrenergic response to intense muscular activity in sedentary subjects as a function of emotivity and training]

Seven male sedentary human subjects were studied during intense muscular work (80% of maximal oxygen uptake) performed either for 15 min or until exhaustion (mean duration: 47 +/- 2 min). Plasma catecholamines were estimated before and after the experiment by means of an original fluorimetric assay. Epinephrine or norepinephrine were individually isolated from plasma and assayed in single extracts by a highly sensitive fluorimetric method. Epinephrine and norepinephrine levels as low as 15 ng per liter were detectable by this procedure in human plasma. The adrenergic pattern was found to be greatly different from one subject to another and related to emotivity: the effect of this factor was revealed by the predominance of epinephrine in plasma at rest or under exercise (ratio NA/A less than 1). In nonemotive subjects (ratio NA/A greater than 1 at rest) plasma epinephrine and norepinephrine increased progressively during exercise. Increments after exercise were higher for norepinephrine changes; however, the fact that epinephrine concentrations correlated significantly with norepinephrine suggests a simulataneous and coordinated stimulation of adrenal glands and orthosympathetic nervous system. In emotive subjects (ratio NA/A less than 1 at rest) the apprehension of muscular work promoted a difference in catecholamine responses: norepinephrine release was not affected by subject's anxiety, while epinephrine secretion, already elevated before the test, reached a high degree of magnitude in the first minutes of muscular work, remaining nearly constant until exhaustion. Physical training of nonemotive subjects, during 2 months with two intense exercises by a week, reduced strongly norepinephrine release after exhaustive muscular work. In the same conditions, the adrenal-medullary response was not significantly modified when compared with untrained subjects. Our results suggest that the adrenergic behaviour during exercise is a function of effort intensity to be supplied; catecholamines seem to be important factors in regulating body homeostasy during muscular work in man. In addition, emotive subjects exhibit amplified adrenal-medullary response, which may be related to psychological stimuli.