Endurance training, not acute exercise, differentially alters beta-receptors and cyclase in skeletal fiber types.

beta-Adrenergic receptor binding characteristics and adenylate cyclase activity were examined in rat skeletal muscle membranes to determine if acute exercise or endurance training altered beta-receptors or adenylate cyclase activity in different muscle fiber types. Binding characteristics and adenylate cyclase activity were examined in type IIA [red fast-twitch, red vastus (RV)], type IIB [white fast-twitch, white vastus (WV)], and type I [red slow-twitch, soleus (S)] muscles. Acute exercise involved a 20-min run on a treadmill at 20 m/min and did not alter beta-receptor density or adenylate cyclase activity in any of the fiber types examined. Endurance training consisted of a progressive treadmill protocol that involved increasing intensity and duration of exercise for 18 wk. beta-Adrenergic receptor density increased in skeletal muscle fiber types primarily recruited during submaximal training (types I and IIA), whereas nonreceptor-mediated adenylate cyclase activity was altered in the three fiber types. Endurance training significantly increased beta-receptor density in RV by 25% and in S by 19% (P less than 0.05), whereas in WV beta-receptor density was not altered. Basal adenylate cyclase activity in RV was increased approximately 2.5 fold by endurance training. Nonreceptor-mediated adenylate cyclase activity, stimulated by NaF and forskolin, increased by approximately twofold in both RV and WV as a result of endurance training. The data support and extend previous observations to show greater effects of endurance training in types I and IIA fibers with respect to alterations in beta-receptor density and alterations in adenylate cyclase activity in each fiber type. Acute exercise did not alter these parameters either in trained or untrained rats.