Abstract
Twelve male patients with effort angina had needle muscle biopsies taken from their vastus lateralis the day before coronary bypass and during surgery from gastrocnemius muscles for fibre typing and muscle ubiquinone (vitamin Q) determinations. They also had blood samples saved for analyses of ubiquinone (UQ, blood and plasma), α-tocopherol (AT, vitamin E, plasma) and free cholesterol (FC, plasma). FC marks for the lipophilic compound deposition volume and is used to calculate standardized UQ and AT (SUQ and SAT). Vastus lateralis muscle had a decreased percentage distribution of slow twitch muscle fibres (39 ± 4 (SEM) %ST) for the age group but a normal proportion of the fast twitch (FT) ‘ntermediate oxidative’ subgroup FTa (35 ± 5%FTa). Muscle UQ was normal, whereas SUQ and SAT were reduced in relation to healthy individuals. Muscle UQ, SUQ and SAT normalized for oxidative muscle fibre types decreased the higher the muscle oxidative fibre proportion. It was concluded that the antioxidative potential in plasma and muscle was interrelated. This reflects an increased reactive radical species formation related to oxygen metabolism and turnover and a subsequent toll on antioxidant capacity.