Study of skeletal muscle glycogenolysis and glycolysis in chronic steroid myopathy, non-steroid histochemical type-2 fiber atrophy, and denervation.

OBJECTIVE: Muscle biopsies from chronic steroid (glucocorticoid) myopathy, non-steroid histochemical type-2 fiber atrophy, and muscle denervation patients were studied to determine if their glycogen contents, or enzymes involved in glycogenolysis and glycolysis might be related to their fiber atrophy.

DESIGN AND METHODS: Fast frozen muscle biopsies from the above patients and from patients later judged by histochemistry to be normal were assayed enzymatically for glycogen content, for enzymes involved in glycogenolysis, and for 6 of the enzymes involved in glycolysis.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION: All three groups of patients had glycogen content, but only the chronic steroid myopathy muscle had statistically less glycogen content than did normal human muscle. All 3 groups had statistically low mean values compared to normal muscles for glycogen phosphorylase activity. This suggests that the biosynthesis and phosphorolysis of glycogen are not involved in muscle fiber atrophy, and glucocorticoid administration does not activate muscle glycogen biosynthesis. Histochemical type-2 fiber atrophy muscles were low compared to normal muscles in three glycogenolysis enzyme activities plus four glycolysis enzyme activities. Muscles from denervation patients were low compared to normal muscles in three glycogenolysis enzyme activities plus five glycolysis enzyme activities. This suggests that muscle denervation may lower the rate of glycolysis enough to fail to provide sufficient pyruvate for mitochondrial ATP biosynthesis, resulting in insufficient protein biosynthesis in both fiber types.