Exercise-induced decreases in the 1 H transverse relaxation rate (R 2 ) of muscle have been well documented, but the mechanism remains unclear. In this study, the hypothesis was tested that R 2 decreases could be explained by pH decreases and apparent intracellular volume (V i ) increases. 31 P and 1 H spectroscopy, biexponential R 2 analysis, and imaging were performed prior to and following fatiguing exercise in iodoacetate-treated (IAA, to inhibit glycolysis), NaCN-treated (to inhibit oxidative phosphorylation), and untreated frog gastrocnemii. In all exercised muscles, the apparent intracellular R 2 (R 2i ) and pH decreased, while intracellular osmolytes and V i increased. These effects were larger in NaCN-treated and untreated muscles than in IAAtreated muscles. Multiple regression analysis showed that pH and V i changes explain 70% of the R 2i variance. Separate experiments in unexercised muscles demonstrated causal relationships between pH and R 2i and between V i and R 2i . These data indicate that the R 2 change of exercise is primarily an intracellular phenomenon caused by the accumulation of the end-products of anaerobic metabolism. In the NaCN-treated and untreated muscles, the R 2i change increased as field strength increased, suggesting a role for pH-modulated chemical exchange. Key words: skeletal muscle; exercise; hydrogen-ion concentration; osmolarity; nuclear magnetic resonance Exercise-induced increases in the apparent 1 H transverse relaxation time (T 2 ) of muscle water have been well documented. The amount of T 2 change increases as exercise intensity increases; T 2 plateaus 3-4 min after the onset of exercise (1). Following isometric leg extension to fatigue, T 2 recovery follows an approximately exponential time course and is complete after ϳ35 min. (2). The increase in signal intensity from active muscles in T 2 -weighted images allows muscle activity to be detected reliably and noninvasively, which may aid in the placement of regions of interest or surface coils in spectroscopic studies (2,3). With a full understanding of the mechanism(s) of the T 2 change, this phenomenon may also be useful in functional studies of muscle activation during exercise (e.g., Refs. 4 -6), noninvasive studies of pathologic conditions in which the T 2 response to exercise is altered (e.g., Refs. 7 and 8), and as a means of studying noninvasively those physiological changes that increase T 2 .The most universally offered and best-studied explanation for the T 2 increase during exercise is the concomitant increase in muscle volume. However, the mechanism of the T 2 increase is more complex than total water accumulation. For example, recovery of the muscle's anatomical cross-sectional area is faster than T 2 recovery (2), and enhancement of the extracellular fluid volume increase during exercise is not proportional to the T 2 increase (9). A further complication is that both ex vivo amphibian (10) and in vivo mammalian (11) studies suggest that exchange between the intra-and extracellular spaces in muscle is sl...

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In 1H NMR spectroscopic studies of fatiguing skeletal muscles, two peaks consistently arise near 1.3 ppm, typically 15-20 Hz apart at 300 MHz. From a variety of NMR and biochemical evidence, both peaks are identified as lactate. Both the CH3 and CH protons of lactate experience the same shift in intact muscle; this rules out chemical bonding or complexation. The ratio of intensity of the two methyl peaks varies with muscle type and suggests a correlation with oxidative and glycolytic fiber populations. The shift can be accounted for by the presence of paramagnetic myoglobin in the oxidative fibers. Phantom studies, as well as oxygen, temperature, field, and orientation dependence of the muscle spectra are all consistent with an explanation based upon bulk magnetic susceptibility. It is concluded that the two lactate peaks represent separate contributions from glycolytic and oxidative muscle fibers.

Quantitative lactate imaging and spectroscopy were performed on phantoms and on electrically stimulated, excised frog skeletal muscle at macroscopic and microscopic resolutions. Lactate selectivity was achieved by use of a zero-quantum/double-quantum coherence (ZQC/DQC) lactate filter, which suppressed all signals besides lactate, including water and lipid, to below noise level. Three-dimensional lactate data sets were acquired in 1-3 h; one of these spatial dimensions was frequency-encoded and the other two were phase-encoded. High-resolution images were reconstructed using the spectral localization by imaging (SLIM) and generalized SLIM (GSLIM) techniques. Lactate quantitation was achieved by employing an external lactate concentration standard and was verified by comparison to quantitative STEAM-localized and nonlocalized spectra that used total creatine as an internal concentration reference. Additionally, quantitatively accurate behavior of the SLIM and GSLIM techniques as applied to data sets of low signal-to-noise ratio and to macroscopically heterogeneous objects was verified using simulations and real muscle lactate data sets with known heterogeneity.

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