mitochondria

Research shows that both physical training and medium-chain fatty acids have positive effects on mitochondria. Dr. B G (animalpharm) has some awesome posts that have brought the importance of mitochondria to my attention; you might want to skim a few of her articles to help understand and appreciate their importance first.

• ketogenic diet appears neuroprotective...enhanced mitochondrial function...
• gene-environment interaction part II
• mitochondrial adaptation to exercise + training
  

mitochondria and medium-chain fatty acids (MCFAs)


This study was performed on rats to measure mitchondria capability to provide ATP. The rats were fed a ketogenic diet of medium-chain triglycerides. Mentions that ketone body intake improves cardiac metabolic efficiency and exerts a cardioprotective antioxidant action.

CONCLUSION: showed that MCT-ketogenic diet improves mitochondrial capability to provide ATP, and mitochondrial area (size) increased in cardiac tissue.

Enhancement of muscle mitochondrial oxidative capacity -- potent tissue-specific effects of medium-chain fatty acids

MCFAs demonstrated improved glucose tolerance and enhanced muscle mitochondrial oxidative capacity - "the increase in oxidative capacity was substantially greater in MCFA-fed animals" (50-140% vs 20-50% for LCFAs)


mitochondria and training

This article brings up

• "Endurance training induces a multitude of adaptations that result in increased fat oxidation"
• "duration and intensity of exercise training required to induce changes in fat oxidation is currently unknown"
• "Ingestion of carbohydrate in the hours before or on commencement of exercise reduces the rate of fat oxidation significantly compared with fasted conditions"
• "fasting longer than 6 h optimizes fat oxidation"
• "at oxidation rates have been shown to decrease after ingestion of high-fat diets, partly as a result of decreased glycogen stores and partly because of adaptations at the muscle level."

Low-fat diet alters intramuscular substrates and reduces lipolysis and fat oxidation during exercise.

High-fat diet elevates resting intramuscular triglyceride concentration and whole body lipolysis during exercise.

UCP2
UCP2 is a mitochondrial protein.
UCP2 appears to be used in areas of the brain for the purpose of modulating energy balance.
overexpression of UCP2 has been reported to be neuroprotective against oxidative stress in vivo and in vitro