M. Quadriceps femoris of man, a muscle with an unusual enzyme activity pattern of energy supplying metabolism in mammals

1. The following enzyme activities were estimated in needle-biopsy samples of the lateral part of the human quadriceps femoris muscle: triosephosphate dehydrogenase (TPDH), lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), NAD : glycerol-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GPDH), hexokinase (HK), NAD: malate dehydrogenase (MDH), citrate synthase (CS) and hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase. 2. Although the enzyme activities in muscles of women were lesser than in those of men, no difference was found in the calculated enzyme activity ratios. There is thus no sex-dependent metabolic type-differentiation in this muscle. 3. The human quadriceps femoris is a low-activity muscle, in comparison with muscles of homoiotherm laboratory animals. The enzyme activity ratio of TPDH to CS, characterizing the glycolytic pyruvate formation to aerobic oxidative capacities, shows this muscle to be of an intermediate type in this respect, similarly as the extensor digitorum longus of the rat. The relatively very high capacity of glucose phosphorylation (HK), the high aerobic regeneration of cytoplasmic dehydrogenated NAD (GPDH) and the very low anaerobic regeneration (LDH), show the unusually high proportion of carbohydrates (glucose) which can be broken down aerobically.