Effects of exercise training with short‐duration intermittent hypoxia on endurance performance and muscle metabolism in well‐trained mice

The author previously reported that short‐duration intermittent hypoxia had additive effects on improvements in endurance capacity by enhancing fatty acid metabolism. The present study was designed to investigate the effects of short‐duration intermittent hypoxia on endurance capacity, metabolic enzyme activity, and protein levels associated with mitochondrial biogenesis in well‐trained mice. Mice in the training group were housed in a cage with a running wheel for 7 weeks from 5 weeks old. Voluntary running markedly increased maximal work values by 5.0‐fold. Trained mice were then subjected to either endurance treadmill training (ET) for 60 min or hybrid training (HT, ET for 30 min followed by sprint interval exercise (5‐sec run‐10‐sec rest) for 30 min) with (H‐ET or H‐HT) or without (ET or HT) short‐duration intermittent hypoxia (4 cycles of 12–13% O2 for 15 min and 20.9% O2 for 10 min) for 4 weeks. Maximal endurance capacity was markedly greater in the H‐ET and H‐HT than ET and HT groups, respectively. H‐ET and H‐HT increased activity levels of 3‐hydroxyacyl‐CoA‐dehydrogenase in oxidative muscle portion and pyruvate dehydrogenase complex in glycolytic muscle portion. These activity levels were significantly correlated with maximal endurance capacity. Protein levels of dynamin‐related protein‐1 were increased more by H‐ET and H‐HT than by ET and HT, but were not significantly correlated with maximal work. These results suggest that intermittent hypoxic exposure has beneficial effects on endurance and hybrid training to improve the endurance capacity via improving fatty acid and pyruvate oxidation in highly trained mice