Abstract

Introduction

Materials & Methods

Results

Discussion & Conclusion

References

Discussion
Board

Understanding regulation of blood vessel growth is clearly important to the study of long-term control of the cardiovascular system in both physiological and pathological conditions. Factors leading to this growth regulation process can be of two general types: physical factors and humoral factors. The large vessel experiments by Langille and O'Donnell (1) showed that reductions in blood flow alone can decrease the diameter of the common carotid artery, and this chronic flow-related diameter change is endothelium dependent. The endothelium is subjected to flow-induced shear stress which may be the stimulus for flow-induced changes (2,3). Hogan and Hirschmann (4), however, have shown proliferation of arterioles when pressure and flow were decreased by ligation of one of the feeding arteries to the cremaster. But this latter experiment did not determine whether arteriolar proliferation was due to a decrease in pressure or to a mismatch between blood supply and tissue metabolic demand. Thus, this project was designed (1) to develop a model in which blood flow can be reduced in the microcirculation without altering perfusion pressure or disturbing perfusion capabilities of the feeding vessels; (2) to evaluate microvascular development during normal skeletal muscle maturation; and (3) to determine the alterations associated with decreased blood flow caused by a decrease in demand.

Back to the top.