Metabolic adaptation of muscles to exercise, vibration and raised temperature under the influence of cernitins

Wistar rats were used to study the effects of cernitins, i.e. aqueous and oil extracts of pollens, on the metabolic adaptation of the soleus muscle to exercise, vibration and raised ambient temperature. The animals were exposed to selected combinations of these factors for 5 days during 1.5 hour daily. A part of the animals was given orally cernitins in daily doses of 6 mg/kg of body weight for 10 days before the exposure. Among the adaptation changes studied in the soleus muscle, 24 hours after the last exposure, cernitins caused: a reduction of the amount of total protein, an increase in the proportion of soluble proteins in the protein fraction, an increase in the tissue oxygen consumption, an increase of already elevated pyruvate kinase activity, a further rise in ATP level, an increase in lactic dehydrogenase activity, a rise in the activity of cholinesterases. Moreover, it increased significantly the body weight and the weight of the studied soleus muscle. Cernitins, in combination with certain types of exposure used in this experiment, exerted a catabolic action, increased the rate of anaerobic metabolism and enhanced adaptation to exercise, vibration and temperature. The direction of the adaptation changes depended on the type of exposure to environmental factors.