Acute exercise causes mitochondrial DNA deletion in rat skeletal muscle

The present study was conducted to determine the effects of acute overload exercise on mitochondrial DNA and the structure of skeletal muscles. Rats were forced to run for 20 min until reaching complete exhaustion. We detected the large-scale deletion (7052 bp) of mitochondrial DNA by the nested polymerase chain reaction, and also observed mitochondrial ultrastructural changes in the soleus muscle. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Muscle Nerve 22: 258–261, 1999