Abstract:Aiming to investigate the effect mechanism of hypoxiainducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) on glycolysis capacity of postmortem bovine muscle, the bovine M. Longissimus dorsi was selected as the experimental material, the cellular aggregation and nuclear migration of HIF-1α, expression of HIF-1α and glycogen transporter-1, glycolysis ratelimiting enzymes activities, glycolytic potential, and pH values were determined at different time points of postmortem aging (0h, 6h, 12h, 24h, and 48h) in the control group and 3(5′hydroxymethyl2′furyl)1benzyl indazole (YC-1)treated group. The results showed that HIF-1α was aggregated and translocated to the cell nucleus in bovine muscle at the early stage of postmortem aging. The expression levels of HIF-1α were increased by 1.20 fold at 0~6h(P<0.05),which were significantly higher than those in the YC-1 treated group at 6~48h (P<0.05). With the steady accumulation of HIF-1α, the expression levels of GLUT-1 were significantly increased by 1.91 fold within 0~6h in the control group (P<0.05). The hexokinase (HK) and phosphofructokinase (PFK) activities were significantly elevated to 197.43U/g protein and 27.33U/g protein at 0~6h and 0~12h, respectively (P<0.05). As for the glycolysis capacity, the glycogen consumption and lactate accumulation rates were significantly higher in the control than those in the YC-1 treated group (P<0.05). The glycolytic potential was significantly increased by 1.10 fold at 0~12h (P<0.05) and was significantly higher than that of YC-1 treatment from 6h to 24h (P<0.05). Meanwhile, pH values in the control group were significantly decreased to the ultimate pH (pHu) at 0~12h(P<0.05), which was 12h earlier than that in the YC-1 treated group. The results indicated that HIF-1α played an important role in enhancing the glycolytic capacity of bovine muscle by inducing GLUT-1 expression and elevating the activities of glycolysis rate-limiting enzymes at the early stage of postmortem aging.