Abstract
To clarify the capillary hemodynamics in terms of longitudinal and transverse orientation of capillary, we measured red blood cell velocity (VRBC) for these two orientations of capillary in soleus, i.e. straight and tortuous capillaries, and capillary in gastrocnemius, i.e. straight and anastomotic capillaries, at rest in anesthetized rat with our newly developed pencil-probe charge-coupled device (CCD) videomicroscope. Five to ten regions of interest (ROIs) were chosen from the surface of these muscles. The rats were assigned to one of two groups: control, or hindlimb suspension for 2 weeks (HS). As for control, the longitudinal and transverse VRBC for soleus was significantly lower than that for gastrocnemius. HS significantly decreased longitudinal VRBC for gastrocnemius and significantly increased transverse VRBC for soleus. Coefficient of variation (CV = SD/mean), which reflects heterogeneity of VRBC among ROIs, of VRBC was not significantly changed. The frequency distribution of Vrbc was described by a gamma distribution except for that of longitudinal Vrbc in atrophying soleus. These results indicate that adaptive microvascular hemodynamics in atrophying muscle is different between soleus and gastrocnemius muscle. [Jpn J Physiol 54 Suppl:S91 (2004)]
