Lactic acid concentrations in plasma and red cells during work and recover

Newton, J. L.

Robinson, S.

English

NASA Technical Reports Server

Fina l  Scientif ic  Report 
National Aeronautics and Spcae Administration 
Grant NSG 408 
December 31, 1966 
Part V I .  Distribution of Lactic Acid Between Plasma and Red Cells 
During Work and Recovery 
J. L. Newton and S. Robinson 
Department of Anatomy and Physiology 
Indiana University 
. 
Bloomington, Indiana . 
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19670013926 2020-03-16T18:32:20+00:00Z
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Distribution of l a c t i c  acid between plasma and red c e l l s  during work and recovery. 
Newton, J. L, and S. Robinson. NASA Nsg 408, Decmeber 31, 1966. 
Abstract 
Lactic acid concentrations i n  whole blood, p l a s m  and red ce l l s  were 
determined on samples drawn from the femoral veins of wen during 2 t o  3- 
minute runs t o  exhaustion on t h e  treadmill. Plasma l ac ta te  concentration. 
increased rapidly during the  runs, but t h e  r i s e  i n  whole blood was slowed 
by the delayed diffusion of lac ta te  i n to  the  r e d  c e l l s  during the first 
1 t o  2 minutes of work. In  one man plasma l ac t a t e  i n  femoral vein blood 
began t o  decline within 30 seconds after a 3 minute exhausting run, while 
l ac t a t e  continued t o  diffuse in to  the red ce l l s  f o r  10 minutes following 
the  run. 
2 t o  20 minutes respectively following a 2-minute run t o  exhaustion. 
delayed diffusion of l ac t a t e  i n to  the r e d  c e l l s  contributes t o  the continued 
increase i n  whole blood l ac t a t e  following strenuous work. 
In  another man plasma and c e l l  l ac t a t e s  continued t o  r i s e  f o r  
This 
8 The delay i n  the dis t r ibut ion of l ac t a t e  i n  an exhausting run and 
recovery m u s t  involve not only circulatory dis t r ibut ion and diffusion i n t o  
the less act ive t issues  of the body, as Freviously shown (par t  V of t h i s  
repart) ,  but, also diffusion of l ac t a t e  from the  plasma into the red cells. 
Others (1, 4, 5 )  have investigated the  diffusion of lac ta te  i n to  the  r e d  
c e l l s  i n  vi t ro ,  but no thorough s t u d y  of t h i s  process has been made i n  
the i n t a c t  man. O u r  purpose i n  making the  present study was t o  apmoach 
the  problem di rec t ly  i n  the  in t ac t  orgsnism by determining plasma, whole 
blood and red  c e l l  l ac t a t e  concentrations i n  blood flowing d i r ec t ly  from 
the  working muscles (femoral vein) of men during exhausting runs and recoveries. 
METHOD 
The sampling and analyt ical  methods employed i n  these experiments were 
the same as those employed i n  the preceeding study (par t  V of t h i s  report). 
Blood vas sampled from the femoral vein during exhausting treadmill  work 
and recovery and immedia.tely cooled i n  3 ml. p las t i c  centrifuge tubes i n  
melting i c e  t o  prevent diffusion of l ac t a t e  in to  o r  out of t he  c e l l s  (4). 
An aliquot was removed for cletermination of whole blood lac ta te  and 
hematocrit. 
SO00 rpm i n  a refrigerated c e n t r i f q e  (1-3°C). 
precipitated i n  perchloric acid solution fo r  the determination of plasma 
lactate. 
capi l la ry  tubes (2) .  
The remaining blood was then centrifuged f o r  5 minutes a t  
Separated plasma was then 
Hematocrits vere determined by centrifuging blood samples i n  
Red cell l ac t a t e  (IC) was calculated from the determined values of 
whole blood l a c t a t e  (I& ), plasma l ac t a t e  (Lp), and hemotacrit (Vc) by b 
the  formula of Johnson e t  al. (2):  I& - Lp (lac) Lc= VC 
REsmm 
The r e su l t s  of experiments on subject DC and RT are  given i n  Figs. 1 and 
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concentrations were higher then %he l ac t a t e  concentrations i n  the  r e d  ce l l s ;  
t h e  plasma t o  c d l l a c t a t e  r a t io s  (P/C) were 1.5 t o  1 and 1.8 t o  1 respectively, 
I n  subjects DC, who ran t o  exhaustion i n  2 minutes, plasma and whole 
I n  femoral vein blood of the men a t  rest before work the  plasma l a c t a t e  
8 
blood lac ta tes  rose only t o  16 and 12 mln respectively during work and 
conthued t o  r i s e  during the  first 3% minutes of recovery. 
l ac t a t e  declined rapidly i n  the next four  minutes while whole blood l ac t a t e  
d i d  not begin t o  decline un t i l  ,af ter  the 6th minute. 
rise u n t i l  the  2nd minute of work after which it rose Eapidly t o  8.4 M l  a t  
the end of work and continued to  r i s e  slowly through the  20th minute of 
recovery a f t e r  which it began to decline. Concentrations i n  plasma and 
c e l l s  slowly converged toward the intermediate concentration i n  whole 
blood as recovery progressed. 
l ac t a t e  began t o  move in to  the ce l l s  during the 2nd minute of work a f t e r  
which it decreased. It returned t o  Rear the  pre-work leve l  i n  the f irst  
10 minutes of recovery and d i d  mot change through the  remainder of the 
recovery period. 
The p l a sm 
Cel l  l ac t a t e  d i d  not 
During the  run P/C increased grea t ly  u n t i l  
In  subject RT, who continued t o  run f o r  3 minutes before reaching 
exhaustion, femoral vein plasma m d  whole blood l ac t a t e s  rose 26.5 mM/1 
and 17.5 mN/l respectively during fvork. Plasma l ac t a t e  reached a peak 
within the  f i rs t  half minute of recovery and then declined a t  a steady 
r a t e ,  whereas whole blood rose an additional 2 mEV1 during the first 
2;s minutes of recovery .md remained a t  t h i s  k m l  through 10 minutes of 
recovery when it began t o  decline in a course siillilar to, but a t  a 
lower l eve l  than, t ha t  of the pb.sma l ac t a t e  concentrntion. 
case of DC no r i s e  i n  c e l l  l m t a t e  was observed i n  RT un t i l  the 2nd minute 
of  work a f t e r  which it rose rapidly t o  6.4 m#. 
As i n  the 
0 
I n  recovery it continued t o  r i s e  t o  17.0 mM/l i n  the  11th minute 
and then declined. 
t o  much higher leve ls  and failed t o  re turn t o  the rest ing leve l  i n  recovery 
I n  work P/C rose much the same as  it d i d  i n  Dc but 
and remained elevated throughout recovery even a f t e r  a constant r a t i o  w a s  
reached a t  6 minutes. 
It should be pointed out t ha t  the red c e l l  l a c t a t e  values are  calculated 
from three determined values: 
Mhernotacr3.t and t h a t  small errors i n  the  determination of any or a l l  of 
these values may exaggerate variations i n  the calculated c e l l  values. 
whole blood lac ta te ,  plesma lactate ,  
DISCUSS I O N  
These d a t a  show a difference i n  lactat,e concentration between plasma 
and c e l l s  i n  r e s t  and work as previously reported by others (1, 3 )  and 
which may b at t r ibuted primarily t o  the difference i n  water content of 
plzsma and c e l l s  (4). The continued r i s e  of whole blood l ac t a t e  i n  the 
blood of the femoral vein during recovery is  due i n  part t o  the continued 
diffusion of l ac t a t e  i n to  the red ce l l s  from the nlasma. 
I n  t h e  f i rs t  1% minutes of work there was l i t t l e  o r  no increase i n  
the l ac t a t e  concentration i n  the red  ce l l s  of the femoral vein blood even 
though plasma l ac t a t e  was increasing rapidly, We hPve no explanation f o r  
t h i s ,  b u t  it snpgests t h a t  sope i n i t i a l  conditions involving concentration 
gradient, pH, pC02, etc. (1, 4) may be required before lac ta te  begins t o  
d i f f u s e  into the ce l l ,  This finding d i f fe rs  somewhPt from previous work 
by Johnscn e t  a l .  ( 5 )  whose data showed that  diffusion of l a c t a t e  i n to  
the  red ce l l s  begihn a t  once i n  experiments carried out a t  36°C i n  which 
plasma high i n  l ac t a t e  vas mixed with ce l l s  low i n  lac ta te  thus imposing 
an immediate high concentration gvdient .  
were required fo r  complete equilibrium of plasma and cel ls  (P/C=2.5 t o  1) 
and about 2 minutes were required fo r  h a l f  equilibrium (P/C=s t o  1). Our 
exverinents d i f fe r  from theirs  i n  t h a t  i n  v i t r o  the  concentration gradient 
is increased gradually as lac ta te  from the working muscles diffuses in to  
t h e  plasma increasing i ts  lpctate  concentration.. 
Under these conditions 19 minutes 
Johnson e t  a l .  ( 5 )  also 
. 
II 
postulates t ha t  the  continued increase i n  whole blood l a c t a t e  i n  t h e  first 
few minutes of recovery following exercise is not due t o  the continued 
production of l s c t a t e  a f t e r  t h e  exercise i s  Over, bu% due t o  Ita slowly 
increasing c e l l  l ac t a t e  i n  plasma tha t  has a l ac t a t e  l eve l  held essent ia l ly  
constmt foT a few minutes by a re la t ive ly  large muscle mass from which 
lactate is passing i n t o  t h e  extracel lular  f lu id ."  In  Fig. 2 subject RT 
showed a drop i n  the plasma l ac t a t e  i n  femoral vein blood beginning within 
30 seconds i n  recovery following a 3-minute run, 
(see par t  V of t h i s  repor t )  do not support the above hypothesis. 
rapid drop i n  plasma l a c t a t e  indicates t'lat there  is no continued production 
of l ac t a t e  by the muscles a f t e r  the  exercise is stopped and tha t  diffusion 
from the extracel lular  f l u i d  of the muscle in to  the plasma is not great ly  
delayed, However, diffusion in to  the red ce l l s  i s  delayed and it i s t h f s  
delay which brings about the continued elevation of the whole blood l ac t a t e  
i n  t h e  femoral vein following exercise. 
t h i s  sudden drop i n  plasma l ac t a t e  a t  the end of work. 
only 2 minutes before reaching exhaustion, which, f o r  him, was not suf f ic ien t  
time f o r  c i rculatory adjustment t o  occur, and t h i s  resulted i n  greater 
accumulation of l ac t a t e  i n  the leg muscles. 
l a c t a t e  was responsible f o r  the continued r i s e  i n  plasma l ac t a t e  i n  ear ly  
recovery, 
a 
I 
This and other experiments 
T h i s  
Subject DC (Fig. 1) d i d  not show 
He was able t o  run 
The removal of t h i s  accurnulated 
Previous studies i n  t h i s  laboratory (see par t  V of t h i s  report)  have 
shown tha t  during periods of high blood l ac t a t e  concentrations l ac t a t e  
diffuses  in to  inactive t i s sues  and tha t  in ear ly recovery the return of 
t h i s  stored l ac t a t e  t o  the circulation i s  mainly responsible f o r  the 
continued r i s e  and prolonged elevation of l ac ta te  i n  arm vein blood 
following an exhausting run i n  which most of the l ac t a t e  has been produced i n  
t h e  l eg  muscles. The data just presented i n  t h i s  paper demonstrates t h a t  the 
delayed diffusion of l ac t a t e  from the plasma in to  the red ce l l s  also contributes 
t o  the  continued increase i n  whole blood lactate following work. 
a 
LI) 
Refer encea 
1. Devadatta, S, C, Quart. J, Exper, Physiol. 24:295-303, 1934. 
2. Guest, G. If. and V, B, Silver, * J. Lab. Clin, Hed. 19:757, 1934, 
3. H i l l ,  A, V., C. N, H, Long and H,  Lupton, Roc,  Roy, SOC, (London) 
B 9S:LSSy 1924. 
4. Huckabee, No E. J, Clin. Invest. 37:24444,  1958, 
5,  
I 
I Johnson, R. E., H. T. Edwards, D. B, D i l l  and J, W, Wilson. J. Biol, 
I Chem. 157 :461-473, 1945. 
I - 


Distribution of lactic acid between plasma and red cells during work and recovery

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