Exogenous 13C glucose oxidation during exercise: North American vs Western European studies

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that the well-documented changes in background 13C enrichment of expired CO2 observed in response to exercise and carbohydrate ingestion, in subjects living on a North American diet, are not present in subjects living on a Western European diet. The experimental protocol used by Pirnay et al. in 1977 and by Krzentowski et al. in 1984 in subjects living on a Western European diet (4 h of exercise on a treadmill at approximately 50% VO2max with ingestion of 100 g of glucose in 400 ml of water) was duplicated as closely as possible in six subjects living on a North American diet. The actual amounts of exogenous glucose oxidized, computed with a high artificial 13C enrichment of glucose (+189.7/1000 delta 13C PDB-1) which allows one to neglect the 1-2/1000 delta changes in 13C background, were [mean (SEM)] 54.7 (5.4) and 84.2 (3.4) g over 2 h and 4 h of exercise, respectively. These values compare well with data computed by Pirnay et al. [56.6 (13.1) and 94.9 (4.2) g] and by Krzentowski et al. [55.0 (6.2) and 88.0 (4.5) g] using a natural enrichment of glucose (-11.21 and -10.63/1000 delta 13C PDB-1, respectively) assuming no change in 13C background in their Western European subjects. Under the same assumption and using a natural enrichment of glucose (-11.30/1000 delta 13C PDB-1) the oxidation of exogenous glucose was overestimated by 30-40% in our North American subjects.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)