Biochemical Background of the VO2 On-Kinetics in Skeletal Muscles

This review discusses the present knowledge on the oxygen uptake kinetics at the onset of exercise in skeletal muscle and the contribution of a previously developed computer model of oxidative phosphorylation in intact skeletal muscle to the understanding of the factors determining this kinetics on the biochemical level. It has been demonstrated recently that an increase in the total creatine pool [PCr + Cr] and in glycolytic ATP supply lengthen the half-transition time of the VO2 on-kinetics, while an increase in mitochondria content, in parallel activation of ATP supply and ATP usage, in muscle oxygen concentration, in proton leak, in resting energy demand, in resting cytosolic pH, and in initial alkalization diminish this parameter. It has also been shown that the half-transition time is near-linearly proportional to the absolute difference between the phosphocreatine concentration during work and at rest (deltaPCr). The present review discusses whether the V/O2 on-kinetics on the muscle level is strictly or only approximately exponential. Finally, it is postulated that a short transition time of the VO2 on-kinetics in itself does not need be profitable for the skeletal muscle functioning during exercise, but usually a short transition time is correlated with factors that improve exercise capacity. The transition time is a phenomenological parameter resulting from the biochemical properties of the system and not a physical factor that can cause anything in the system.