Carnosine concentration in the muscle of thoroughbred horses and its implications in exercise performance

抄録

Carnosine (β–alanyl histidine) plays essential roles in the exercise performance since it has various beneficial characteristics including pH buffering, anti-oxidant, anti–glycation, anti-crosslink activities. To investigate the effects of carnosine in the exercise of horses, we analyzed the amount of carnosine in the muscles of thoroughbred horse using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) equipped with a carbon column. We found the high concentrations of carnosine in horse muscles, but not of anserine (1-methyl carnosine). We detected neither carnosine nor anserine in other tissues including liver, kidney, jejunum, spleen and aorta, and found only a small amount of carnosine in esophagus, bladder, and stomach. We also investigated the variations in carnosine concentration among five muscles (flexor capri radius, triceps branchii, masseter, gluteus medius, sternocleidomastoid), and found that the gluteus medius exhibited the highest concentration of carnosine These results suggest the relationship between carnosine and muscle fiber types. Our developed methods are useful for the investigation of carnosine and the exercise performance.