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Title: 13C NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE SPECTROSCOPY - A NON-INVASIVE INVIVO METHOD TO MEASURE MUSCLE GLYCOGEN METABOLISM IN PIGS OF DIFFERENT GENOTYPES.

Author
item SCHOLZ, A. - LUDWIG-MAXIMILIANS UNIV
item Mitchell, Alva
item SONG, H. - HOWARD UNIVERSITY
item WANG, P. - HOWARD UNIVERSITY

Submitted to: Archives of Animal Breeding
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 2/26/2003
Publication Date: 2/26/2003
Citation: Scholz, A.M., Mitchell, A.D., Song, H., Wang, P.C. 2003. 13C Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy - A non-invasive invivo method to measure muscle glycogen metabolism in pigs of different genotypes. Archives of Animal Breeding. (Arc. Tierz., Dummerstorf). 46(2):199-211.

Interpretive Summary: Glycogen, glucose, phosphocreatine and ATP are major energetic components of muscle metabolism. The glycogen levels at the time of slaughter and the speed of glycogen metabolism post mortem are very important factors for the final pork quality - especially for the processing quality of cured-cooked ham. The Rendement Napole (RN) gene or Hampshire effect gene and the better studied Malignant Hyperthermia Syndrome (MHS) have been shown to be associated with the above effects on meat quality. By using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy it was possible to measure changes in these components in the muscle of live pigs and to demonstrate that they are related to genetic factors and that might contribute the quality of the meat after slaughter.

Technical Abstract: The three ryanodine receptor 1 gene variants (NN: homozygous stress stable, Nn: heterozygous and nn: homozygous stress susceptible) and the degree of Hampshire origin (0 %, 25 %, 50 %) serve as model for the investigation of the in vivo glycogen muscle metabolism in 27 pigs. The pigs originate from 4 different cross-breeding lines with an age varying between 41 and 58 days and a body weight between 7.3 and 19 kg. 13C nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy was applied non-invasively in vivo and in a few pigs also post mortem to study the metabolic processes in the biceps femoris muscle after halothane exposure. In contrast to no visible effects of the halothane challenge test, the heterozygous defective allele carriers showed a drastic reduction in the level of glycogen (57 %) coupled with an increase in body temperature (1.36 °C). Overall, these changes were intermediate compared to the dramatic response in the homozygous nn genotype and to the very slow processes in NN, considering that the drastic glycogen depletion in the heterozygous genotype occurred after a rather long time of halothane exposure. At the same time pigs with the highest degree of Hampshire origin (50%) showed the slowest glycogen depletion.