Muscle and liver glycogen content: diurnal variation and endurance

The purpose of this study was to determine the influence of diurnal variations of muscle and liver glycogen stores on exercise endurance in male albino rats. Animals were swum to exhaustion at either 0700 or 1900 h, after which samples of soleus, white vastus lateralis, and red vastus lateralis muscles as well as liver were excised and subsequently analyzed for glycogen content. Glycogen content of all tissues from nonexercising control animals was higher in the morning than in the evening. Consequently, animals at 0700 h swam 60% longer than those at 1900 h (209 +/- 20 min vs. 130 +/- 23 min, respectively). However, because the skeletal tissues of the exhausted animals were not totally depleted of glycogen, it was concluded that fatigue under the swim protocol was the result of hypoglycemia secondary to hepatic glycogen depletion. The results of this study demonstrate the physiological consequences of diurnal glycogen fluctuation and establish experimental support for the importance of controlling this variable in rodent exercise investigations.