Wolfel EE, Lopaschuk GD, Brooks GA. Substantial working muscle glycerol turnover during two-legged cycle ergometry. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 293: E950-E957, 2007. First published July 10, 2007; doi:10.1152/ajpendo.00099.2007.-We combined tracer and arteriovenous (a-v) balance techniques to evaluate the effects of exercise and endurance training on leg triacylglyceride turnover as assessed by glycerol exchange. Measurements on an exercising leg were taken to be a surrogate for working skeletal muscle. Eight men completed 9 wk of endurance training [5 days/wk, 1 h/day, 75% peak oxygen consumption (V O2peak)], with leg glycerol turnover determined during two pretraining trials [45 and 65% V O2peak (45% Pre and 65% Pre, respectively)] and two posttraining trials [65% of pretraining V O2peak (ABT) and 65% of posttraining V O2peak (RLT)] using [ 2 H5]glycerol infusion, femoral a-v sampling, and measurement of leg blood flow. Endurance training increased V O2peak by 15% (45.2 Ϯ 1.2 to 52.0 Ϯ 1.8 ml ⅐ kg Ϫ1 ⅐ min Ϫ1 , P Ͻ 0.05). At rest, there was tracer-measured leg glycerol uptake (41 Ϯ 8 and 52 Ϯ 15 mol/min for pre-and posttraining, respectively) even in the presence of small, but significant, net leg glycerol release (Ϫ68 Ϯ 19 and Ϫ50 Ϯ 13 mol/min, respectively; P Ͻ 0.05 vs. zero). Furthermore, while there was no significant net leg glycerol exchange during any of the exercise bouts, there was substantial tracer-measured leg glycerol turnover during exercise (i.e., simultaneous leg muscle uptake and leg release) (uptake, release: 45% Pre, 194 Ϯ 41, 214 Ϯ 33; 65% Pre, 217 Ϯ 79, 201 Ϯ 84; ABT, 275 Ϯ 76, 312 Ϯ 87; RLT, 282 Ϯ 83, 424 Ϯ 75 mol/min; all P Ͻ 0.05 vs. corresponding rest). Leg glycerol turnover was unaffected by exercise intensity or endurance training. In summary, simultaneous leg glycerol uptake and release (indicative of leg triacylglyceride turnover) occurs despite small or negligible net leg glycerol exchange, and furthermore, leg glycerol turnover can be substantially augmented during exercise. exercise; crossover concept; stable isotopes; lipid metabolism WHOLE BODY LIPOLYTIC RATE is typically assessed using the isotope tracer dilution technique (35), and there has been extensive application of this approach to study the response of systemic glycerol turnover to exercise. Systemic glycerol turnover has been shown to increase several-fold in response to exercise (6,25,28), although the effects of whole body exercise on glycerol metabolism in different body segments and particularly in the working limbs and muscles of those limbs have received limited attention. In fact, our understanding of the response of whole working limb glycerol metabolism to exercise (e.g., the legs during 2-legged cycle ergometry) is largely limited to the interpretation of net limb glycerol balance data (i.e., arteriovenous concentration difference ϫ blood flow) (1, 13). Previously, we reported essentially zero net leg glycerol balance during two-legged cycle ergometry regardless of exercise intensity or endurance trainin...