Dietary nitrate increases submaximal SERCA activity and ADP transfer to mitochondria in slow-twitch muscle of female mice

Rapid oscillations in cytosolic calcium (Ca2+) coordinate muscle contraction, relaxation, and physical movement. Intriguingly, dietary nitrate decreases ATP cost of contraction, increases force production, and increases cytosolic Ca2+, which would seemingly necessitate a greater demand for sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca2+ ATPase (SERCA) to sequester Ca2+ within the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) during relaxation. As SERCA is highly regulated, we aimed to determine the effect of 7-day nitrate supplementation (1 mM via drinking water) on SERCA enzymatic properties and the functional interaction between SERCA and mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation. In soleus, we report that dietary nitrate increased force production across all stimulation frequencies tested, and throughout a 25 min fatigue protocol. Mice supplemented with nitrate also displayed an similar to 25% increase in submaximal SERCA activity and SERCA efficiency (P = 0.053) in the soleus. To examine a possible link between ATP consumption and production, we established a methodology coupling SERCA and mitochondria in permeabilized muscle fibers. The premise of this experiment is that the addition of Ca2+ in the presence of ATP generates ADP from SERCA to support mitochondrial respiration. Similar to submaximal SERCA activity, mitochondrial respiration supported by SERCA-derived ADP was increased by similar to 20% following nitrate in red gastrocnemius. This effect was fully attenuated by the SERCA inhibitor cyclopiazonic acid and was not attributed to differences in mitochondrial oxidative capacity, ADP sensitivity, protein content, or reactive oxygen species emission. Overall, these findings suggest that improvements in submaximal SERCA kinetics may contribute to the effects of nitrate on force production during fatigue. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We show that nitrate supplementation increased force production during fatigue and increased submaximal SERCA activity. This was also evident regarding the high-energy phosphate transfer from SERCA to mitochondria, as nitrate increased mitochondrial respiration supported by SERCA-derived ADP. Surprisingly, these observations were only apparent in muscle primarily expressing type I (soleus) but not type II fibers (EDL). These findings suggest that alterations in SERCA properties are a possible mechanism in which nitrate increases force during fatiguing contractions.

Automated summary

This study shows that nitrate supplementation can increase force production during muscle fatigue, enhance submaximal SERCA activity, and boost mitochondrial respiration supported by SERCA-derived ADP. These effects are primarily observed in type I muscle fibers.