Yes ok, but what is the problem? Does every explanation have to be longwinded?
So you want more information about lactate shuttling?
Howzabout this:
Role of mitochondrial lactate dehydrogenase and lactate oxidation in the intracellular lactate shuttle
February 1999
George A. Brooks*, Hervé Dubouchaud, Marcia Brown, James P. Sicurello, and C. Eric Butz
Exercise Physiology Laboratory, Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3140
INTRODUCTION
Arterial lactate concentration is low and stable in resting humans (1, 2) and other mammals, such as rats (3) and dogs (4), giving no indication of relatively high flux rates that range from 0.5 to 1.0 mg/kg per min in resting men (1, 2). In resting mammals oxidation accounts for approximately half lactate disposal and gluconeogenesis approximately 20% (1-5). During sustained submaximal exercise, blood lactate rate of appearance increases as a direct function of metabolic rate (1-3); however, arterial lactate concentration increases little during sustained moderate intensity exercise because disposal through oxidation (80%) and gluconeogenesis (20%) matches appearance (1, 2, 6). During both rest and exercise, skeletal muscle is a major site of lactate oxidation as well as production (1, 2). Differences in circulating lactate concentration between individuals with similar rates of appearance are attributable to variations in clearance rate (3, 5). At exercise onset, net lactate release from working muscle contributes to the elevation of circulating lactate concentration, but as exercise continues, working muscle consumes and oxidizes lactate on a net basis as production continues (1, 7). Studies on mammalian muscles in situ demonstrate that in working muscle lactate uptake and oxidation are concentration dependent (8, 9), and similar data are available on human skeletal muscle (1, 2, 7, 10) and heart (11).
The cytosol of heart, skeletal muscle, and other cells is abundant in lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) (12). The equilibrium constant for LDH is 3.6 × 104 M1, and muscle LDH isoforms demonstrate characteristics of low Km and high Vmax, resulting in lactate production regardless of the state of oxygenation (13, 14). That working skeletal muscle tissue can simultaneously produce, consume, and oxidize lactate has been explained by the lactate shuttle mechanism (15), a model that assumes fiber heterogeneity with lactate production occurring in fast-glycolytic (type IIB) fibers and oxidation in slow-oxidative (type I) fibers. However, the model of a cell-cell lactate shuttle is less adequate for predicting lactate metabolism in resting muscle tissue, which appears fully oxygenated (14), but which releases lactate on a net basis (1, 7).
To evaluate the role of mitochondria in balancing lactate production and oxidation as part of an intracellular lactate shuttle (16), we respired isolated rat cardiac, skeletal muscle, and liver mitochondria with lactate and pyruvate in the presence or absence of known inhibitors of metabolism. As well, we probed for the presence of LDH isoforms in mitochondria by electrophoresis and electron microscopy. Results support the conclusion of a mitochondrial role in cellular lactate oxidation (16) and provide an explanation of the high correlation between lactate clearance during exercise (3) and muscle mitochondrial respiratory capacity (17).
Later in the discussion:
The lactate shuttle hypothesis (15) posited a role of muscle fiber type heterogeneity in lactate exchange among tissues. This supposition was based on the known lactate concentration and mitochondrial density differences between types I and IIB muscle fibers (29, 37). Subsequently, studies on isolated sarcolemmal vesicles (38) showed that sarcolemmal transporters facilitate lactate flux according to concentration and pH gradients. More recently, candidates for seven putative cell membrane monocarboxylate transporters have been cloned and sequenced (39, 40). Based on current evidence, we believe that this scenario of lactate flux between glycolytic and oxidative fibers holds, even if no recruitment occurs. Given similar glycolytic rates in glycolytic and oxidative muscle fibers, glycolytic fibers will tend to accumulate and release lactate because of lesser mitochondrial density. In contrast, highly oxidative fibers will act as lactate sinks because of greater mitochondrial content.
Although the model of an intracellular lactate shuttle (16) is a unique proposal for mammalian liver and striated muscle metabolism, the paradigm is apparently not unique in nature. Mitochondrial matrix LDH is well characterized in sperm of boar (41), mouse, rat, and rabbit (42), and pyruvate-lactate shuttles have been proposed for these systems. Additionally, LDH has a predominant mitochondrial localization in placental trophoblast cells (43). Thus, parallel models of mitochondrial lactate oxidation involving mitochondrial LDH exist in cells of the same and related phylogenies. Further, in Saccharomyces cerevisiae Flavocytochrome b2 is a soluble L-lactate cytochrome c oxidoreductase found in the mitochondrial intermembrane space (44) that couples lactate dehydrogenation to reduction of cytochrome c (45). Hence, S. cerevisiae readily consume and oxidize lactate by a mechanism analogous to that which we propose for mammalian striated muscle and liver mitochondria.
In conclusion, results confirm the presence of mitochondrial LDH (30-32) and support a role for mitochondrial LDH in tissue lactate clearance and oxidation. By virtue of this role, long-standing problems of understanding why fully oxygenated cells readily form lactate are obviated. Glycolysis inevitably results in cytosolic lactate production because the equilibrium constant for LDH is far in the direction of product and the free energy change (G°' = 6 kcal/mol) is large. However, mitochondrial lactate oxidation can balance cytosolic production, with resultant being zero cellular net lactate release. Glycogenolysis and glycolysis in excess of the corresponding rate of mitochondrial PDH activity results in muscle lactate accumulation and net release regardless of absolute flux rates or state of tissue oxygenation (1, 7). For example, epinephrine stimulation of glycogenolysis in resting muscle results in lactate release during constant or elevated oxygen consumption (46). Moreover, in a respiratory steady state, elevation of arterial lactate concentration results in a switch from muscle lactate net release to uptake as well as suppression of glucose uptake because exogenous lactate substitutes for endogenous (8, 10). Further, under conditions of low glycolytic flux, resting mixed skeletal muscle will release lactate on a net basis (1, 2, 7), whereas working myocardium with a high glycolytic flux rate will consume and oxidize lactate on a net basis (11). Results are consistent with the presence of an intracellular lactate shuttle.
http://www.pnas.org/cgi/content/full/96/3/1129