The effects of an increase in body temperature per se on the lactate and pyruvate concentrations of the arterial blood, muscle venous blood, sagittal sinus blood, and cerebrospinal fluid were determined. Paralysed anesthetized dogs with near normal arterial pH and PC0(2) values were ventilated with a 50% 0(2), 50% N(2) mixture and heated to a temperature of 42°C and maintained at this temperature for a period of 2 hours. During hyperthermia a slight increase in lactate and pyruvate was observed in the arterial blood. However, this was not statistically significant. Also a slight increase in the concentration of these substances occurred in the muscle venous blood and sagittal sinus blood. This change, however, was parallel to that observed in the arterial blood. The lactate-pyruvate ratio of the arterial blood, muscle venous blood and sagittal sinus blood did not show any significant change and thus no increase in anaerobic processes was detected during the hyperthermic period. On the other hand the cerebrospinal fluid lactate and pyruvate increased significantly throughout the hyperthermic period but maintained a constant lactate-pyruvate ratio. The results indicate that the increase of lactate and pyruvate in the cerebrospinal fluid are a result of an increased rate of aerobic glycolysis. The fact that the increases observed in the cerebrospinal fluid lactate and pyruvate were not reflected in the cerebral venous blood indicates lactate and pyruvate may have difficulty in diffusing across the blood brain barrier and cerebral venous blood is thus a poor index of cerebral lactate and pyruvate changes. / Medicine, Faculty of / Cellular and Physiological Sciences, Department of / Graduate

Aging is a multifaceted process of accumulation of damage and waste in cells and tissues; age-related changes in mitochondria and in respiratory metabolism have the focus of aging research for decades. Studies of aging in nematodes, flies and mammals all revealed age-related decline in respiratory functions, with somewhat controversial causative role. Here we investigated age-related changes in respiration rates, lactate/pyruvate ratio, a commonly used proxy for NADH/NAD+ balance, and mitochondrial membrane potential in 4 genotypes of an emerging model organism for aging research, a cyclic parthenogen Daphnia magna. We show that total body weight-adjusted respiration rate decreased with age, although this decrease was small in magnitude and could be fully accounted for by the decrease in locomotion and feeding activity. Neither total respiration normalized by protein content, nor basal respiration rate measured in anaesthetized animals decreased with age. Lactate/pyruvate ratio and mitochondrial membrane potential (∆Ψ) showed no age-related changes, with possible exceptions of ∆Ψ in epipodites (excretory and gas exchange organs) in which ∆Ψ decreased with age and in the optical lobe of the brain, in which ∆Ψ showed a maximum at middle age. We conclude that actuarial senescence in Daphnia is not caused by a decline in respiratory metabolism and discuss possible mechanisms of maintaining mitochondrial healthspan throughout the lifespan.