published_or_final_version / Medicine / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

The effect of delayed freezing on muscle glycogen and lactate was investigated to determine the rate of change following excision of samples from an intact muscle. The plantaris muscle was removed and a portion frozen as quickly as possible to establish a zero time reference point. The remaining portion of the plantaris was exposed to room atmosphere for a specific time interval, either 1.00, 4.00, 5.00, 6.00, 10.00, 15.00 minutes, after which they were immediately frozen. he glycogen and lactate values for the timed intervals were subtracted from the zero or initial value. In this way the results could be reported as the net increase or decrease per time interval. The muscle glycogen analysis indicated no difference in the timed intervals (P<0.05) 1.00, 2.00, 4.00, 5.00, 6.00, but at the ten and fifteen minute intervals, significant differences were noted for a net decrease of 9.94 and 10.18 μmoles/g, respectively. In muscle lactate analysis, no significant differences were noted for any of the time intervals. The rate of utilization of glycogen was calculated as 0.523 μmoles/g/min., and lactate formation as 0.214 μmoles/g/min. This study indicates that freezing muscle biopsy specimens may be delayed as long as six minutes after removal from the subject with no significant changes.Ball State UniversityMuncie, IN 47306