Mitochondrial Oxygen Affinity Increases After Sprint Interval Training and is Related to the Improvement in Peak Oxygen Uptake

Aims: The body responds to exercise training by profound adaptations throughout the cardiorespiratory and muscular systems, which may result in improvements in maximal oxygen consumption (VO peak) and mitochondrial capacity. By convenience, mitochondrial respiration is often measured at supra-physiological oxygen levels, an approach that ignores any potential regulatory role of mitochondrial affinity for oxygen (p50 ) at physiological oxygen levels.

Methods: In this study, we examined the p50 of mitochondria isolated from the Vastus lateralis and Triceps brachii in 12 healthy volunteers before and after a training intervention with seven sessions of sprint interval training using both leg cycling and arm cranking. The changes in p50 were compared to changes in whole-body VO peak.

Results: We here show that p50 is similar in isolated mitochondria from the Vastus (40 ± 3.8 Pa) compared to Triceps (39 ± 3.3) but decreases (mitochondrial oxygen affinity increases) after seven sessions of sprint interval training (to 26 ± 2.2 Pa in Vastus and 22 ± 2.7 Pa in Triceps, both P < .01). The change in VO peak modelled from changes in p50 was correlated to actual measured changes in VO peak (R  = .41, P = .002).

Conclusion: Together with mitochondrial respiratory capacity, p50 is a critical factor when measuring mitochondrial function, it can decrease with sprint interval training and should be considered in the integrative analysis of the oxygen cascade from lung to mitochondria.