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This thesis work aims to improve our understanding of the effects of resistance training on performance and skeletal muscle. The dynamic of these effects of training has been apprehended systematically trough tools from systems theory, with 26 rodents resistance trained on a climbing protocol with additional weights. The classical model (Banister et al, 1975) was suitable to analyze the training response (R2 = 0.53, P

The aim of the experiment was to determine the influence of concurrent gestation and lactation in rabbit does on the post-natal growth and muscular characteristics of the progeny. Myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform proportion, myofibrillar protein content and size of the myofibres were determined on day 29 or day 70 in the semitendinosus muscle of young rabbits born from either simultaneously pregnant and lactating does (PL group) or from only pregnant does (P group). There were no significant differences in the weight of the young rabbits of the two groups throughout the post-natal period, despite a non-significant reduction of birth weight by 9% in the PL group. On day 29, the proportion of perinatal MHC was higher (5.8% vs 2.3%) and that of the type-II isoforms was lower (91.5% vs 95.0%) in the PL group than in the P group (P < 0.01). The simultaneous gestation and lactation affected the maturation of secondary fibres. On day 70, the proportion of the MHC isoforms was similar in the two groups. These results suggest that concurrent gestation and lactation delayed the myofibrillar maturation rate.

The influence on chick myogenesis of hypothyroid status induced in ovo by methimazole was histologically (number and types of muscle fibers) and biochemically studied. A single injection of methimazole induced an hypothyroid status during embryogenesis, as shown by the plasma T4 levels which were separately assayed in male and female controls and treated embryos from day 12 of incubation to day 4 after hatching. In both sexes, control plasma T4 reached a peak on day 20 of incubation, but the female values were significantly higher; plasma T4 in the treated embryos remained at a low level independently of sex. Only methimazole-treated males showed a significant increase (P less than 0.01) in the total number of fibers of the two muscles (tibialis posterior and flexor digitorum) studied. Moreover, the histochemical results on succinate dehydrogenase and myofibrillar ATPase evidenced that, of the three fiber types (alpha R, alpha W and beta R) constituting the skeletal muscles, only the alpha fibers increased significantly. Aldolase (glycolytic) and NADP isocitrate dehydrogenase (tricarboxylic acid cycle) activities, measured on the adductor and pectoralis muscles, showed a similar developmental pattern in control and treated animals, but was retarded in the latter due to a 5-day delay in hatching. It is not known whether the tissular differences were related directly to the hypothyroid status, to alterations in nervous system differentiation or, as suggested by intersexual differences, to modifications in hormonal balance.

In the urodelan amphibian Pleurodeles waltlii, spontaneous external metamorphosis was correlated with an increase in the serum level of thyroxine (T4). Within the same period, a change occurred in the myofibrillar ATPase profile of the dorsal skeletal muscle; fibres of larval type were gradually replaced by transitional fibres (type IIC), then by adult fibres of the types I, IIA, and IIB. Likewise, a myosin isoenzymic transition was observed. In larval animals, myosin electrophoresis revealed 3 bands corresponding with isoforms having identical heavy chains (MHC), but different light chains (MLC). In the course of metamorphosis, the 3 larval isomyosins were replaced by 3 isoforms having the adult type MHC and different motility. In a related neotenic species, Ambystoma mexicanum, no spontaneous anatomic metamorphosis occurred; at the time it should theoretically take place, the serum T4 level remained low. The ATPase profile was modified, but transitional fibres that replaced the initial larval types appeared to be persistent, and adult fiber types appeared only in a small amount. Myosin isoenzymic transition was also incomplete, larval isoforms were still distinguished in the neotenic adults. Similar persistence of larval characters was observed in adult Proteus anguinus, a perennibranch that never undergoes anatomical metamorphosis. Experimental hypothyroidian Pleurodeles waltlii displayed no external metamorphosis, only the larval fibre types and isomyosins were detected in those animals. External metamorphosis was induced in Ambystoma mexicanum by a triiodothyronine treatment. A complete myosin isoenzymic transition was observed in metamorphosed animals. These results tend to indicate that a moderate increase in the level of thyroid hormones is sufficient to determine the production of the adult type MHC molecules and the differentiation of the corresponding myofibrillar types in the skeletal dorsal muscle of amphibians, while a marked increase would be necessary for repressing the initial larval feature.