Skip to main content
Log in

Adaptive potential of human biceps femoris muscle demonstrated by histochemical, immunohistochemical and mechanomyographical methods

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing Aims and scope Submit manuscript

An Erratum to this article was published on 23 January 2007

Abstract

The goal of this study was to estimate the ability of biceps femoris (BF) muscle, a hamstring muscle crucial for biarticulate movement, to adapt to changed functional demands. For this purpose and due to ethical reasons, in a group of healthy sedentary men and of 15 sprinters, a non-invasive mechanomyography (MMG) method was used to measure the muscle twitch contraction times (Tc). These correlate with the proportions of slow and fast fibres in the muscle. To further elucidate the data obtained by MMG method and to obtain reference data for the muscle, the fiber type proportions in autoptic samples of BF in sedentary young men were determined according to histochemical reaction for myofibrillar adenosine triphosphatase (mATPase). In one BF sample also myosin heavy chain (MyHC) isoform expression was demonstrated immunohistochemically. With MMG we indirectly demonstrated that biceps femoris muscle has a strong potential to transform into faster contracting muscle after sprint training, since the average Tc in sprinters was much lower (19.5 ± 2.3 ms) than in the sedentary group (30.25 ± 3.5 ms). The results of the histochemical and immunohistochemical analysis of BF muscle also imply a high adapting potential of this muscle. Beside type 1, 2a and 2× (2b) fibres a relatively high proportion of intermediate type 2c fibres (5.7% ± 0.7), which co-expressed MyHC-1 and -2a, was found. Therefore, type 2c might represent a potential pool of fibres, capable of transformation either to slow type 1 or to fast type 2a in order to tune the functional response of BF muscle according to the actual functional demands of the organism.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. Allbrook D (1981) Skeletal muscle regeneration. Muscle Nerve 4:234–245

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. Andersen JL, Schjerling P, Saltin B (2000) Muscle, genes and athletic performance. Sci Am 283:48–55

    Article  Google Scholar 

  3. Baldwin K, Haddad F (2001) Plasticity in skeletal, cardiac, and smooth muscle invited review: effects of different activity and inactivity paradigms on myosin heavy chain gene expression in striated muscles. J Appl Physiol 90:345–357

    Article  Google Scholar 

  4. Billeter R, Mac Dougall JD, Bell RD, Howald H (1980) Myosin types in human skeletal muscle fibers. Histochemistry 65:249–259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Biral D, Betto R, Danieli-Betto D, Salviati G (1988) Myosin heavy chain composition of single fibers from normal human muscle. Biochem J 250:307–308

    Google Scholar 

  6. Blomstrand E, Ekblom B (1982) The needle biopsy technique for fibre type determination in human skeletal muscle—a methodological study. Acta Physiol Scand 116:437–442

    Google Scholar 

  7. Brooke M, Kaiser K (1970) Muscle fibre types: how many and what kind. Arch Neurol 23:369–379

    Google Scholar 

  8. Burger H, Valenčič V, Kogovšek N, Marinček Č (1996) Properties of musculus gluteus maximus in above knee amputees. Clin Biomech 11(1):35–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Cavanagh PR (1990) Biomechanics of distance running. Human Kinetics Books, Champaign, pp 53–56

  10. Colling-Saltin AS (1978) Some quantitative biochemical evaluations of developing skeletal muscles in human fetus. J Neurol Sci 39:187–198

    Article  Google Scholar 

  11. Dahmane R, Valencič V, Knez K, Eržen I (2001) Evaluation of the ability to make non-invasive estimation of muscle contractile properties on the basis of the muscle belly response. Med Biol Eng Comput 38:51–56

    Article  Google Scholar 

  12. Dahmane R, Djordjevič S, Šimunič B, Valenčič V (2005) Spatial fiber type distribution in normal human muscle. Histochemical and mechanomyographical evaluation. J Biomech 38(12):2451–2459

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Delagi EF, Perotto A, Iazzetti J, Morrisson D (1975) The limbs. In: Charles C, Thomas (eds) Anatomic guide for the electromyographer. Springfield Illinois, USA, pp 61–69

    Google Scholar 

  14. Goldspink G, Scutt A, Loughna PT, Wells DJ, Jaenicke T, Gerlach GF (1992) Gene expression in skeletal muscle in response to stretch and force generation. Am J Physiol 262:R356–R363

    Google Scholar 

  15. Gorza L (1990) Identification of a novel type 2 fiber population in mammalian skeletal muscle by combined use of histochemical myosin ATPase and anti-myosin monoclonal antibodies. J Histochem Cytochem 38:257–265

    Google Scholar 

  16. Guth L, Samaha FJ (1970) Procedure for the histochemical demonstration of actomyosin MATPase (research note). Exp Neurol 28:365–367

    Article  Google Scholar 

  17. Harridge SDR, Bottinelli R, Canepari M, Pellegrino MI, Reggiani C, Esbjörnsson M, Saltin B (1996) Whole-muscle and single-fibre contractile properties and myosin heavy chain isoforms in humans. Pflügers Arch-Eur J Physiol 432:913–920

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. Hopkins WG (2000) Measures of reliability in sports medicine and science. Sports Med 30(1):1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Jansson E, Kaiser L (1982) Muscle adaptation to extreme endurance training in man. Acta Physiol Scand 100:315–324

    Google Scholar 

  20. Jansson E, Sjodin B, Tesch P (1978) Changes in muscle fibre type distribution in man after physical training. A sign of fibre type transformation? Acta Physiol Scand 104:235–237

    Google Scholar 

  21. Jansson E, Sjodin B, Tesch P (1990) Increase in the proportion of fast-twitch muscle fibres by sprint training in males. Acta Physiol Scand 140:359–363

    Google Scholar 

  22. Kirkendall DT, Garrett WE (1998) The effect of ageing and training on skeletal muscle. Am J Sports Med 26(4):598–602

    Google Scholar 

  23. Kyrolainen HP (1999) Changes in muscle activity patterns and kinetics with increasing running speed. J Strength Cond Res 13(4):400–406

    Article  Google Scholar 

  24. Orlander J, Aniansson A (1980) Effect of physical training on skeletal muscle metabolism and ultrastructure in 70 to 75-year-old men. Acta Physiol Scand 109:149–154

    Google Scholar 

  25. Padykula HA, Herman E (1955) The specificity of the histochemical method for adenosine triphosphatase. J Histochem Cytochem 3:170–183

    Google Scholar 

  26. Palastanga N, Field D, Soames R (1989) Anatomy and human movement. In: Butterworth–Heinemann Ltd (eds) Oxford, pp 331–335

  27. Pernuš F, Eržen I, Bjelogrlič Z (1986) A computer-aided method for muscle fibre type quantification. Acta Sterol 5(1):49–54

    Google Scholar 

  28. Pette D, Vrbova G (1989) Neural control of phenotypic expression in mammalian muscle fibres. Muscle Nerve 8:676–689

    Article  Google Scholar 

  29. Pette D, Staron R (1990) Cellular and molecular diversities of mammalian skeletal muscle fibers. Rev Physiol Biochem Pharmacol 116:1–76

    Google Scholar 

  30. Pette D, Staron R (1997) Mammalian skeletal muscle fibre type transition. Int Rev Cytol 170:143–223

    Article  Google Scholar 

  31. Pierobon-Bormioli S, Sartore S, Dalla Libera L, Vitadello M, Schiaffino S (1981) ‘Fast’ isomyosins and fiber types in mammalian skeletal muscle. J Histochem Cytochem 29:1179–1188

    Google Scholar 

  32. Reichman H, Pette D (1982) A comparative microphotometric study of succinate dehydrogenase activity levels in type I, IIA and IIB fibres of mammalian and human muscles. Histochemistry 74:27–41

    Article  Google Scholar 

  33. Schiaffino S, Reggiani C (1996) Molecular diversity of myofibrillar proteins: gene regulation and functional significance. Physiol Rev 76:371–423

    Google Scholar 

  34. Schiaffino S, Gorza L, Sortore S, Saggin L, Vianello M, Gundersen K, Lomo T (1989) Three myosin heavy chain isoforms in type 2skeletal muscle fibres. J Muscle Res Cell Motil 10:197–205

    Article  Google Scholar 

  35. Smerdu V, Eržen I (2001) Dynamic nature of fibre-type specific expression of myosin heavy chain transcripts in 14 different human skeletal muscles. J Muscle Res Cell Motil 22(8):647–655

    Article  Google Scholar 

  36. Smerdu V, Karsch-Mizrachi I, Campione M, Leinwand LA, Schiaffino S (1994) Type IIx myosin heavy chain transcripts are expressed in type IIX fibers of human skeletal muscle. Am J Physiol 267:C1723–C1728

    Google Scholar 

  37. Talmadge RL (2000) Myosin heavy chain isoform expression following reduced neuromuscular activity: potential regulatory mechanisms. Muscle Nerve 23:661–679

    Article  Google Scholar 

  38. Valenčič V, Knez N (1997) Measuring of skeletal muscles dynamic properties. Artif Organs 21(3):240–242

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgment

This study was supported by grants from the Slovenian Olympic Committee and the MMG-BMC d.d.o. The authors wish to thank Mr. Ivan Blažinovič, Mr. Marko Slak and Mrs. Ana Tomažinčič from the Institute of Anatomy, Medical Faculty, University of Ljubljana for excellent technical assistance. The experiments comply with the current laws of the country in which the experiments were performed.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Raja Dahmane.

Additional information

An erratum to this article can be found at http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11517-006-0146-x

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dahmane, R., Djordjevič, S. & Smerdu, V. Adaptive potential of human biceps femoris muscle demonstrated by histochemical, immunohistochemical and mechanomyographical methods. Med Bio Eng Comput 44, 999–1006 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-006-0114-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-006-0114-5

Keywords

Navigation